Lake Forest Coronavirus Counts: 1,003 Total Cases
LAKE FOREST, CA — With nearly 300 more diagnoses of coronavirus reported in Orange County Thursday, there is growing concern about the county slipping down to the most restrictive, purple tier. In Lake Forest, a total of 1,003 people have tested positive for coronavirus since March.
The county on Thursday reported six more COVID-19 fatalities, hiking the death toll to 1,520, and 295 more diagnoses of coronavirus, raising the cumulative to 63,460.
The rate of deaths has been trending down over the past few weeks. From Oct. 25 through Halloween, there were 39 deaths reported, up from 35 the week before, but lower than 69 the previous week. Last week, there were 24 fatalities, and so far this week, there have been 14 deaths.
Two of Thursday's reported fatalities were skilled nursing facility residents and one was an assisted living facility resident. About 46% of the county's deaths were residents of skilled nursing homes or assisted living facilities.
Another concern is the rising rate of hospitalizations.
The number of hospitalizations related to the virus increased from 244 Wednesday to 251 Thursday, with the number of intensive care unit patients rising from 83 to 89, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.
"I'm not happy," Orange County CEO Frank Kim said of the hospitalization rate. "That certainly rings the bell. I'm concerned. You can't ignore that trend."
There is concern the worst is yet to come, Kim said.
"The biggest worry we have is not even in the recent rise — that's a concern — but it's about Thanksgiving and Christmas," Kim said. "Most people nationally have been forecasting the worst of Covid is coming after the holiday season."
Officials say the daily average of new cases would have to come down to about 130 for Orange County to make it to the orange tier, allowing for more businesses to reopen and for some already open to increase their capacity. But the county has to stay under 229 new daily cases to remain in the red tier.
Kim said it is growing more apparent the county will fall back from the red tier to the most restrictive tier, purple.
There will be no changes in terms of capacity allowed in stores and other businesses right away, Kim said.
"You have to be in [one tier] for two weeks before the restrictions are triggered," Kim said.
"The governor is done a good job of putting in that two week requirement," he said. "It gives you a week to have that discussion (with businesses)... Hopefully, it doesn't come to fruition, but if it does there will be no surprises."
Schools won't be closed, but there would be no new schools opened unless they were able to acquire a variance from the county.
Among the businesses and institutions that would be closed for indoor activity would be churches, museums, zoos, aquariums, gyms, restaurants and movie theaters.
The change in the three-day average of hospitalized patients went from 16.6% to 18.8%. The county has 30% of its intensive care unit beds and 64% of its ventilators available.
According to OCHCA data, 1,218,628 COVID-19 tests have been conducted since the start of the pandemic, including 12,569 reported Thursday. There have been 55,777 documented recoveries.
The county's positivity rate, which is reported each Tuesday, actually declined from 3.6% to 3.3% this week, and the daily case rate per 100,000 population decreased from 6 to 5.6.
The county's Health Equity Quartile Positivity Rate, which measures a county's response to virus hotspots, decreased from 5.7% to 5.5%. The county has to reach at least 5.2% in that metric to move into the orange tier.
Next week, the county's case rate per 100,000 might jump to about 8, which exceeds the 4 to 7 rate in the red tier, Kim said.
Several other counties are struggling with a rise in cases in schools, according to Kim, though they can happen most often in the workplace. Kim says the outbreaks are found in places of work, such as a local car dealer than had a recent outbreak among its mechanics.
The total number of cases in each city in Orange County of Thursday are as follows:
Aliso Viejo - 456 Total Cases
Anaheim - 10875 Total Cases
Brea - 630 Total Cases
Buena Park - 1830 Total Cases
Costa Mesa - 2165 Total Cases
Coto de Caza - 59 Total Cases
Cypress - 660 Total Cases
Dana Point - 321 Total Cases
Fountain Valley - 627 Total Cases
Fullerton - 3068 Total Cases
Garden Grove - 3517 Total Cases
Huntington Beach - 2781 Total Cases
Irvine - 2098 Total Cases
La Habra - 1733 Total Cases
La Palma - 181 Total Cases
Ladera Ranch - 205 Total Cases
Laguna Beach - 264 Total Cases
Laguna Hills - 382 Total Cases
Laguna Niguel - 551 Total Cases
Laguna Woods - 86 Total Cases
Lake Forest - 1003 Total Cases
Los Alamitos - 249 Total Cases
Midway City - 144 Total Cases
Mission Viejo - 1040 Total Cases
Newport Beach - 1311 Total Cases
Orange - 2942 Total Cases
Placentia - 1141 Total Cases
Rancho Mission Viejo - 82 Total Cases
Rancho Santa Margarita - 418 Total Cases
Rossmoor - 72 Total Cases
San Clemente - 653 Total Cases
San Juan Capistrano - 688 Total Cases
Santa Ana - 12145 Total Cases
Seal Beach - 325 Total Cases
Silverado - 43 Total Cases
Stanton - 755 Total Cases
Trabuco Canyon - 239 Total Cases
Tustin - 1544 Total Cases
Villa Park - 70 Total Cases
Westminster - 1263 Total Cases
Yorba Linda - 917 Total Cases
This article originally appeared on the Lake Forest Patch
