Orange County is now offering non-profit organizations that host vaccination clinics $20 bonuses for each COVID-19 vaccine dose administered in an effort to get more people vaccinated.
Over the last 10 days, the county's COVID positivity rate has increased from 7.2% to 8.9%. While coronavirus-related hospitalizations have remained fairly stable, admissions to the ICU have sharply increased — from 68 patients on August 3rd to 120 on Friday.
Orange County's health officer, Dr. Clayton Chau, says over 90% of people hospitalized are unvaccinated, and most have the delta variant.
"It means that the delta variant is not something to take lightly. We know that this variant is transmitted very easily," said Dr. Chau.
Dr. Chau says there has been an increase over the last couple of weeks in the number of vaccine doses administered in Orange County. In the past two days, the county has averaged 8,500 new doses per day.
I get emotional when I hear that number, because that gives me hope that people are getting the messages.
The number of eligible Orange County residents that have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine is at 75.1%.
"We are one of the few rich countries with excess vaccine," Dr. Chau said. "We need for people to understand that this is a global disease, this is a pandemic. This virus does not discriminate."
