OC's Downward Coronavirus Trend Continues: Schools Talk Reopening

ORANGE COUNTY, CA —Orange County remains on track to move to Tier Three of Gov. Newsom's Four Tiered Coronavirus Risk Framework. On Wednesday, the county remained at 4.7 positive coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents, and dropped in the number of positive cases to 3.9 percent, Orange County Health Care Agency reported..

On Wednesday, six more people have died, and 135 more residents were diagnosed with COVID-19. There are currently 202 residents hospitalized with coronavirus, and of those 67 are in the intensive care at area hospitals.

To date, Orange County has seen 51,259 residents contract COVID-19, and of those, 1,111 people have died.

To date, 755,781 coronavirus tests have been given in Orange County, and roughly 46,000 people have recovered since the virus hit the area in March.

Across Orange County, here are the citywide case counts of coronavirus, since the pandemic began:

• Aliso Viejo - 361 Total Cases

• Anaheim - 8755 Total Cases

• Brea - 463 Total Cases

• Buena Park - 1462 Total Cases

• Costa Mesa - 1768 Total Cases

• Coto de Caza - 43 Total Cases

• Cypress - 520 Total Cases

• Dana Point - 264 Total Cases

• Fountain Valley - 493 Total Cases

• Fullerton - 2334 Total Cases

• Garden Grove - 2802 Total Cases

• Huntington Beach - 2304 Total Cases

• Irvine - 1565 Total Cases

• La Habra - 1365 Total Cases

• La Palma - 151 Total Cases

• Ladera Ranch - 162 Total Cases

• Laguna Beach - 200 Total Cases

• Laguna Hills - 299 Total Cases

• Laguna Niguel - 409 Total Cases

• Laguna Woods - 50 Total Cases

• Lake Forest - 805 Total Cases

• Los Alamitos - 162 Total Cases

• Midway City - 120 Total Cases

• Mission Viejo - 785 Total Cases

• Newport Beach - 1100 Total Cases

• Orange - 2341 Total Cases

• Placentia - 893 Total Cases

• Rancho Mission Viejo - 60 Total Cases

• Rancho Santa Margarita - 332 Total Cases

• Rossmoor - 62 Total Cases

• San Clemente - 483 Total Cases

• San Juan Capistrano - 468 Total Cases

• Santa Ana - 9857 Total Cases

• Seal Beach - 268 Total Cases

• Silverado - 42 Total Cases

• Stanton - 628 Total Cases

• Trabuco Canyon - 191 Total Cases

• Tustin - 1202 Total Cases

• Villa Park - 51 Total Cases

• Westminster - 966 Total Cases

• Yorba Linda - 668 Total Cases

All schools will be allowed to reopen for in-class instruction next Tuesday, OCHCA Director Dr. Clayton Chau told the county's Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

So far, the county has approved 140 elementary schools to reopen through the state's waiver process, Chau said.

Supervisors also approved a plan to set up drive-through flu vaccine clinics in each of the county's five districts to help stave off a potential "twindemic" of the flu and COVID-19 this fall.

The board also approved a plan to expand testing to reach residents who are of Asian-Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern and North African heritage.

"The Latino community remains the highest hot spot in the county, but the next highest is the API community as well as Middle Eastern and North African," Supervisor Andrew Do said. "This shows the board is very proactive in trying to address potential hot spots," Do said.

On Monday's six-month anniversary of the shutdown of large venues such as theme parks, Anaheim officials appealed publicly to the state for some kind of guidance on the reopening of Disneyland so they can better prepare. The state shutdown order of March 14 also affected the Anaheim Convention Center, the Honda Center and Angel Stadium.

Anaheim officials need "guidance on theme parks to reopen safely and responsibly when it is right," city spokesman Mike Lyster said. "We actually need a roadmap for recovery."

The need to plan and prepare is more crucial now that case rates in the county and in hotspots like Anaheim are declining, Lyster said.

"We're seeing cases come down significantly in Anaheim, even in our most hardest-hit neighborhoods," he said.

The county's outreach to neighborhoods with the highest coronavirus cases has made a difference, Lyster said. City officials expect the county to meet the state's orange tier standards as of Tuesday, he said.

The city's unemployment rate has reached 15%, which is higher than the peak of 12% during the Great Recession a decade ago.

"That's 26,000 people in our city. That's a significant amount of people dislocated from their jobs," Lyster said, noting that Anaheim "is looking at a $100 million deficit."

Compounding matters, many of the unemployed have had trouble getting unemployment benefits, Lyster said.

A planned reopening in mid-July was scrapped because of increased outbreaks stemming in part from the Fourth of July weekend. Lyster said city officials believe that Disney's management of the reopening of its Downtown Disney businesses area shows it can responsibly reopen with social distancing and enforcement of face coverings.

"It really is a model to go forward containing coronavirus and also allowing people to get back to work," Lyster said. "What's frustrating is beaches, zoos and parts of Sea World (in San Diego) are open. These are attractions that can draw tens of thousands of people. We want to see the same opportunity for theme parks."

Orange County was upgraded from the purple to the red tier in California's coronavirus monitoring system last week. The move allowed for churches, theaters and other businesses to resume indoor operations, but with strict limits on capacity and other health measures in place.

The county must maintain "red tier" numbers for two weeks before being allowed to move to a less-restrictive level, for further reopenings.

In the red tier, theaters, restaurants and churches are restricted to 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is less. Museums, zoos and aquariums also were allowed to reopen indoor activities at 25% capacity.

Shopping centers were given the green light to expand from 25% capacity to half-capacity under the red tier, while gyms were allowed to reopen at 10% capacity.

This article originally appeared on the Orange County Patch