Orange County reports 4 new deaths due to COVID-19

The Orange County Health Care Agency reported four new deaths related to the coronavirus and 227 new daily COVID-19 positive tests Saturday.

The new deaths reported by healthcare officials are all residents not living in a facility. The county’s overall death toll due to COVID-19 now stands at 1,127.

Overall coronavirus numbers, taken as a seven-day average with a seven-day lag period, would continue to keep Orange County in the red tier indicating “substantial” risk, per the state’s established reopening guidelines.

Orange County, which moved to the red tier on Sept. 8, is averaging a 3.9% positive tests result. That would be good enough to move the county down to the orange tier, indicating “moderate” risk and allowing more restrictions to be lifted. However, the average number of positive cases per 100,000 people is at 4.7, which is in the red tier.

That number would need to be 1-3.9 cases per 100,000 people to be eligible for the orange tier. Once it gets to that level, the numbers would have to stay within that range for two straight weeks in order to progress to the next tier.

Orange and San Diego counties remain the only Southern California counties in the red tier. All other counties are still in the more restrictive purple tier, which indicates “widespread risk.”

There are currently 202 patients hospitalized due to the virus, with 65 of them in intensive care units.

An additional 8,844 tests were reported within the last day, bringing the total number of tests administered to 786,298. The healthcare agency estimates that 45,900 people have made a recovery after battling the virus.

Here are the latest cumulative coronavirus case counts and COVID-19 deaths for select cities in Orange County:

• Santa Ana: 9,973 cases; 262 deaths
• Anaheim: 8,849 cases; 244 deaths
• Huntington Beach: 2,339 cases; 70 deaths
• Costa Mesa: 1,781 cases; 28 deaths
• Irvine: 1,611 cases; 12 deaths
• Newport Beach: 1,109 cases; 22 deaths
• Fountain Valley: 497 cases; 16 deaths
• Laguna Beach: 208 cases; fewer than five deaths

Here are the case counts by age group, followed by deaths:

• 0 to 17: 3,592 cases; one death
• 18 to 24: 7,806 cases; four deaths
• 25 to 34: 11,227 cases; 17 deaths
• 35 to 44: 8,289 cases; 31 deaths
• 45 to 54: 8,386 cases; 99 deaths
• 55 to 64: 6,243 cases; 158 deaths
• 65 to 74: 3,102 cases; 229 deaths
• 75 to 84: 1,774 cases; 242 deaths
• 85 and older: 1,408 cases; 346 deaths

Updated figures are posted daily at occovid19.ochealthinfo.com/coronavirus-in-oc. For information on getting tested, visit occovid19.ochealthinfo.com/covid-19-testing.

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