Orange County's Unvaccinated At Risk Of New Delta Variant

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — Should we be concerned about the Delta variant of coronavirus in Orange County? The short answer is yes, and no.

Andrew Noymer, a UC Irvine professor of population health and disease prevention, said Friday that "the numbers are still looking good for Orange County."

There has been concern about the more contagious Delta variant spurring an increase in COVID-19 cases globally, but Noymer emphasized that "the Delta variant is covered by the current vaccines." He added, "What worries me about the Delta variant is not the Delta variant per se... it's some future variant... Anyone concerned about Delta should get vaccinated right away."

As the coronavirus spreads to unvaccinated people, it could continue to mutate and develop strains that could more easily evade vaccines, Noymer said. Reaching a herd-immunity level of vaccination, according to the Centers for Disease Control, is the only way to stem the variations of the coronavirus.

Thus far, vaccinated people are thought to be safe from the Delta variant.

"There's no reason to assume that these variants will completely escape an immune response from vaccinated people," Dr. Timothy Brewer, an infectious disease expert and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Patch in June. "For example, we know that variants that have similar mutations, such as the South Africa one, there are data to show that, particularly the mRNA vaccines, still provide protective immunity — albeit at a lower level — so I would assume they'll similarly perform against the delta variant."

So it's still possible to become infected, but the chances of severe disease are low. About 59 percent of Californians are fully vaccinated, according to state data.

That leaves a large chunk of people unprotected from the more transmissible variant. Meanwhile, nurses in the golden state are encouraging residents to wear masks while they are indoors to prevent the possibility of getting infected with coronavirus or infecting others.

Read: 4 Things To Know About The Rapidly Spreading Delta Variant In CA

According to weekly state data released every Tuesday, the county's average daily new case rate per 100,000 residents edged up from 0.9 last week to 1, while the overall test positivity rate ticked up from 0.7% to 0.9%.

The county's Health Equity Quartile rate, which measures positivity in hot spots in disadvantaged communities, climbed from 0.7% last week to 1.1% this week.

The county on Tuesday reported 44 new COVID-19 infections, pushing the cumulative total to 256,266.

Hospitalizations increased from 51 on Monday to 56 on Tuesday, while the number of intensive care unit patients decreased from 11 to 10.

The Orange County Health Care Agency also logged two more fatalities, but they happened in February. One of the fatalities was an assisted living facility resident, increasing the number of dead in that category to 601.

The overall death toll is 5,120 for the county.

The death toll now stands at six for June; 22 for May; 42 for April; 198 for March; 610 for February; 1,559 for January, the deadliest month of the pandemic; and 966 for December, the next deadliest.

The county no longer posts COVID-19 data on the weekends, and starting Thursday, will begin posting data weekly instead of daily.

As of last week, the county had 1,734,537 fully vaccinated residents. Of those, 1,621,711 received both doses and 264,074 had received one shot of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, which requires two doses. Another 112,826 people received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The county on Tuesday reported 5,346 tests, increasing the cumulative tally to 4,110,483.

The county's weekly average of tests per 100,000 residents fell from 198.6 to 175.2.

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