Activists Protest Outside Of Orange County Top Doc's Home

ORANGE COUNTY, CA—Scores of activists are expected at Orange County's Board of Supervisors meeting, Tuesday. Critics of the county's pandemic response and anti-vaccination activists protested over the weekend in front of Dr. Clayton Chau's home, the current Orange County Public Health Officer.

Last year, similar protests over mask mandates took place outside of the home of Dr. Nichole Quick, who previously held the title of county Public Health Officer.

Read: Dr. Nichole Quick Resigns From Orange County Health Care Agency

Quick resigned amid protests and personal threats. Quick's resignation was the second significant and abrupt departure in Orange County since the pandemic began. David Souleles, former deputy agency director of public health services for Orange County, announced his rapid retirement in April.

Activists were said to be planning another protest in front of the home of newly elected Supervisor Katrina Foley, according to county CEO Frank Kim.

"If people have concerns about policy or want to petition the government, the right place to do that is at the county board of supervisors meeting," Kim said. "That's an appropriate forum. The county has never closed its doors to the members of the public during the pandemic. We certainly encourage the public to come to the board meetings. That's the place to do it."

In Orange County, currently in the yellow tier of Gov. Newsom's Blueprint for a Safer Economy, weekly averages continue a trend downward. On Monday, only 26 new COVID-19 infections were reported. The positivity rate for the underprivileged socioeconomic zip codes hardest hit in the pandemic was at .09%, according to Kim.

The county's weekly averages, which are issued on Tuesdays, should be about the same, Kim said.

There was a slight uptick in the number of coronavirus patients in county hospitals, which increased from 69 Sunday to 76 Monday, with the number of intensive care unit patients rising from 10 to 11, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.

Monday's figures boost the cumulative total to 255,048 cases, and three more fatalities were logged Monday, raising the death toll to 5,052.

The three fatalities logged Monday, in addition to seven more this past weekend, mostly dated back several months, as the death toll for April increased from 38 to 40. March's death toll ticked up by one to 181. February's death toll remained at 581.

January was the deadliest month of the pandemic in Orange County. Those totals increased by five to 1,544, and by two in December, the second deadliest month, to 936.

May's death toll has thus far remained at four.

Another 3,790 COVID-19 tests were reported Monday, bringing the county's total to 3,870,837.

Orange County on Wednesday officially entered the least-restrictive yellow tier of the reopening blueprint, which allows for greater attendance for many businesses such as movie theaters and gyms, while museums, zoos and aquariums can open at full capacity. For the first time, bars and distilleries can open indoors. Theme parks such as Disneyland can expand attendance.

According to the weekly state data released every Tuesday, the average for the county's daily case rate per 100,000 people dropped from 1.8 the previous week to 1.5. The overall test positivity rate improved from 1% to 0.9%, and the county's Health Equity Quartile rate, which measures positivity in hot spots in disadvantaged communities, declined from 1.2% to 0.9%.

The Discovery Cube Orange County, a children's museum in Santa Ana, announced Thursday that it would reopen this Friday.

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