More Orange County Coronavirus Patients Are Younger Than 65

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — On Tuesday, 90 more residents have tested positive for coronavirus, and six more people have died as a result of COVID-19 infections. Those six deaths occurred in February, January, and December as the Orange County Coroner's office continues to catch up with the sheer numbers of those deceased over the winter months.

Orange County Health Care's Director, Dr. Clayton Chau, discussed the new increase to those hospitalized, raising from 115 to 128 on Tuesday, and intensive care patients raising from 23 to 27.

"One thing for concern is the number of people who are hospitalized now seem to be younger and that is across the state as well," Chau told the Board of Supervisors at its regular meeting Tuesday.

"That's because we've done quite well in vaccinating our most vulnerable victims age 65 and older," Chau said.

As of April 18, the county had vaccinated 80% of its residents in that age group, he said.

The county has dispensed 2.57 million doses of vaccines, with 978,000 people considered fully vaccinated, Chau said. About 1.9 million people have received their first dose, Chau said.

The county continues to test around the state average, Chau said. The county's average this week is 308.8 per 100,000 residents. The county received 7,110 tests on Tuesday, raising the cumulative to 3,624,119.

Chau said the county expects to receive 22% fewer vaccines in the next two to three weeks. It is not certain why that is, but Chau said it probably has something to do with the pause in distributing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was lifted on Friday. At the same time, officials studied blood-clotting issues to about 15 people out of 8 million recipients.

Chau also said he anticipates demand for vaccines at the county-run super Point of Distribution sites to drop off soon, prompting a pivot to more mobile clinics to target vaccine hesitancy among certain demographics.

Whether or not to continue Orange County's state of emergency was a point of discussion between the Board of Supervisors, the Health Care Agency, and over 60 registered speakers at Tuesday's meeting.

Bartlett pointed out lifting the declaration could also jeopardize state and federal funding for other social safety net programs as well.

To vaccinate enough residents to reach herd immunity, Bartlett the county needs to vaccinate 740,000 more residents.

Chau admitted some anxiety about reaching herd immunity in time for a mid-June goal due to the declining allocation of vaccines.

Supervisor Don Wagner quizzed Chau about the necessity of continuing a local emergency declaration now that the county's COVID-19 statistics have improved.

Both Chau and Orange County CEO Frank Kim said it is important to continue the emergency declaration to qualify for federal and state relief for COVID-19 expenses.

City News Service, Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig contributed to this report.