The percentage of positive COVID-19 tests in Orange County jumped to 12% on Thursday, with an average of 9.7% of those tested in the past week testing positive.
The county recently said that it had erroneously reported 30,000 additional coronavirus tests between April 28 and June 3 that were actually antibody tests, which may have previously given Orange County a lower percentage of positive tests. Those tests have since been removed.
Antibody, or serology, tests differ from the coronavirus test, or PCR test, because it only checks for previous, not current, infection.
There have been 248,028 cumulative tests, with 15,065 testing positive to date, including 1,197 skilled nursing facility residents, 403 Orange County jail inmates and 108 individuals experiencing homelessness.
The percent of ICU beds currently available continues to shrink with 36% capacity; there’s been an 11.4% increase in 3-day average hospitalized patients.
Nine new deaths were reported Thursday, bringing the total to 354, including 181 skilled nursing residents. More than 75% of all deaths are among those aged 65 years and above.
Northern county cities continue to have the bulk of cases and deaths, led by Santa Ana and Anaheim. On a per capita basis, Los Alamitos has the most deaths, with nearly 12 deaths per 10,000 residents, which is likely due to an outbreak at a skilled nursing facility.
Go here for more updates on how OC companies are responding to coronavirus.
For a deeper dive into why Orange County is seeing a new COVID-19 surge, see this week’s print edition of the Business Journal.
