24 More Coronavirus Deaths Reported In Orange County

Ashley Ludwig
·5 min read

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — Twenty-four more Orange County residents have died as a result of COVID-19, raising the county's death toll to 769. Those figures are accurate, as of Tuesday, according to the OC Health Care coronavirus tracking website.

The OC Health Care Agency epidemiologists work to balance positive case counts and coronavirus deaths with an accurate calendar, a task which is tackled largely by hand, according to Dr. Clayton Chau in a press conference, Thursday.

Dr. Chau expressed that though deaths are reported on one day, the actual dates that someone died is previous to the day of the report. The accuracy and transparency of the county's numbers is a daily balancing act "depending on the time the data is drawn from the state," according to Chau.

July 8 was the date of the highest number of deaths in Orange County, by the chart, with 16 people dying of coronavirus in one day in Orange County

On Thursday, 348 more coronavirus cases were reported, raising the cumulative total to 42,171, according to Orange County Health Care Agency officials. That cumulative number includes fatalities, according to the data website.

Case counts have been up and down since Sunday as officials catch up on the backlog with the state's system, but Orange County officials Thursday reported their statistics are now up to date.

Of the fatalities reported Thursday, three were skilled nursing facility residents and two were assisted living facility residents.

That leaves 19 others who were average residents of Orange County, infected through community spread.

The ages of those who have died as a result of coronavirus are as follows:

  • Age 0 to 17: 0 deaths

  • Age 18 to 24: 3 deaths

  • Age 25 to 34: 11 deaths

  • Age 35 to 44: 25 deaths

  • Age 45 to 54: 68 deaths

  • Age 55 to 64: 100 deaths

  • Age 65 to 74: 154 deaths

  • Age 75 to 84: 171 deaths

  • Age 85 and up: 237 deaths

Of those who have died, 431 are men and 337 are women.

Age Since the pandemic began, 293 of the victims who died were skilled nursing facility residents, 44 were assisted living facility residents and one was homeless.

Hospitalizations continue to drop, according to reports. The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in the county's hospitals dipped from 440 Wednesday to 438, according to the HCA, while intensive care patients hover near the 140 mark. On Thursday, intensive care patients ticked up slightly, from 141 to 143.

Still, according to the figures released by the state, the rate of residents testing positive for COVID-19 in the county decreased from 7.7 percent to 7.6 percent.

The state's desired threshold is 8 percent.

The county's positive case rate per 100,000 residents increased from 109.4 to 116.2, which remains far higher than the California Department of Public Health threshold of 25 per 100,000 residents.

The change in the three-day average of hospitalized patients went from -9.4% to -8.8%, which is lower than the state's threshold.

The county has 29% of intensive care unit beds available, which is better than the state's 20% threshold. And the county's hospitals also have 65% of their ventilators available, higher than the state standard of 25%.

The county reported that 518,065 COVID-19 tests have been conducted, including 13,506 reported Thursday. There have been 32,984 estimated recoveries.

Multiple cities in Orange County are seeing coronavirus totals upwards of 2,000 cases and more. Wherever there is a higher number of cases, you will see a higher death rate, Dr. Clayton Chau of the Orange County Health Care Agency says.

Cities with the highest case counts include: Santa Ana with over 8,000 cases, Anaheim with over 7,000 cases, and Garden Grove with over 2,200 cases.

In cities where there are higher case-counts, you have people living closer together, and lower income families, Chau said in Thursday's meeting.

"We are paying attention to Anaheim and Santa Ana" and the large numbers within those cities, Chau says.

Across Orange County, here is the coronavirus case count by city, for Thursday:

  • Aliso Viejo - 300 Total Cases

  • Anaheim - 7186 Total Cases

  • Brea - 389 Total Cases

  • Buena Park - 1188 Total Cases

  • Costa Mesa - 1377 Total Cases

  • Coto de Caza - 31 Total Cases

  • Cypress - 449 Total Cases

  • Dana Point - 203 Total Cases

  • Fountain Valley - 399 Total Cases

  • Fullerton - 1899 Total Cases

  • Garden Grove - 2289 Total Cases

  • Huntington Beach - 1878 Total Cases

  • Irvine - 1290 Total Cases

  • La Habra - 1055 Total Cases

  • La Palma - 131 Total Cases

  • Ladera Ranch - 128 Total Cases

  • Laguna Beach - 149 Total Cases

  • Laguna Hills - 248 Total Cases

  • Laguna Niguel - 320 Total Cases

  • Laguna Woods - 44 Total Cases

  • Lake Forest - 672 Total Cases

  • Los Alamitos - 135 Total Cases

  • Midway City - 95 Total Cases

  • Mission Viejo - 630 Total Cases

  • Newport Beach - 930 Total Cases

  • Orange - 1935 Total Cases

  • Placentia - 751 Total Cases

  • Rancho Mission Viejo - 48 Total Cases

  • Rancho Santa Margarita - 269 Total Cases

  • Rossmoor - 55 Total Cases

  • San Clemente - 369 Total Cases

  • San Juan Capistrano - 329 Total Cases

  • Santa Ana - 8183 Total Cases

  • Seal Beach - 234 Total Cases

  • Silverado - 42 Total Cases

  • Stanton - 521 Total Cases

  • Trabuco Canyon - 160 Total Cases

  • Tustin - 999 Total Cases

  • Villa Park - 42 Total Cases

  • Westminster - 765 Total Cases

  • Yorba Linda - 553 Total Cases

As local school officials prepare for classes to begin, county officials are tabulating the number of coronavirus cases by various age groups.

Though no children under 18-years-old have died of coronavirus since the pandemic began, children have been infected with the virus. In Orange County, to date, here are the numbers, by age, who have tested positive:

  • 414 children up to age 3 have been infected.

  • 567 in the 4-to-9-year-olds

  • 433 from 10 to 12 years old;

  • 418 among 13- to 14-year-olds;

  • 1,458 in the 15- to 18-year-olds

Many elementary schools are preparing applications for waivers from the county and state that would allow for in-person classroom teaching up to the sixth-grade level. The state has mandated that schools in counties on the watch list must employ distance learning until they get off the watch list.

Full coronavirus coverage: Coronavirus In California: What To Know

This article originally appeared on the Orange County Patch