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COVID Positivity Rate In Orange County Drops Again, Signaling Good News
A pharmacist at UCI Health Center preps the COVID-19 vaccine.
(
Chava Sanchez
/
LAist
)
Some encouraging developments on the coronavirus front from Orange County on Tuesday: the positivity rate among people being tested is now down to 3.7% percent. At the end of August the rate was almost double that, at 6.8%.
The case rate per 100,000 residents is 11.4%, that's down from 18% at the beginning of September.
"We are starting to get out of this surge, which is good and is promising," said Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, Orange County's Deputy Health Officer, at a Tuesday press conference.
Hospitalizations and the number of patients in the ICU are also down from last week. When it comes to vaccinations, more than 70% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated.
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Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley says there's still more work to be done. Some efforts to reach the Latino community — at schools in particular — have been hampered by anti-vaccine protestors.
"We've got such a loud, vocal group who are attacking teachers and school board members and against COVID information being out, so that is part of the problem," Foley said.
Foley added that vaccination rates in some cities, such as Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, are also still lagging behind.
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