The number of COVID-positive patients in Orange County hospitals has fallen by 10 people to 171, according to the latest state figures.
Of those patients hospitalized as of Saturday, 21 were being treated in intensive care, down from 22 the previous day.
Some of the patients were hospitalized for other reasons and learned they had COVID after a mandated test.
The latest number come two days after local health officials reported 1,426 new cases of COVID-19 and 15 additional fatalities linked to the virus. That brought the county’s cumulative totals to 709,877 cases and 7,908 deaths since the pandemic began, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.
The majority of people who die with COVID-19 are elderly or have an underlying health condition such as diabetes, heart disease or hypertension.
Of those hospitalized in the county, 62.6% are unvaccinated or partly vaccinated, according to the OCHCA. The ICU patients are 63.2% partly vaccinated or unvaccinated.
The vaccine does not prevent people from contracting or spreading the virus, but health officials say it reduces the likelihood of severe symptoms or death for those who are infected.
The county’s COVID-19 test positivity rate went from 6.1% to 6.5% last week and decreased from 7.1% to 6.8% in the health equity quartile, which measures the communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
The positivity rate for those fully vaccinated with a booster, which was 4.4 on Jan. 22, increased to 4.6 on Jan. 29. For those vaccinated with no booster, the rate went from 4.1 to 3.9. For those not vaccinated the rate went from 8.2 to 7.6.
The daily case rate per 100,000 went from 5.2 to 5.5 on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag, and from 4.9 to 5.5 in the adjusted daily case rate per 100,000 on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag.
The OCHCA reports COVID-19 data every Thursday.