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Restrictions on recreational sports for youth and adults, such as soccer, baseball, rugby and water polo, may soon be withdrawn if Orange County’s Coronavirus positivity rates continue to decline.
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New state-of-the-art guidelines say provinces in the red and purple levels – the two most restrictive – can allow high-contact sports if their case is at 14 percent per 100,000 or less.
Weekly tests and results within 24 hours of competition are required for all players.
Orange County is currently in the press with an adjusted daily case rate of an average of 20 new cases per 100,000 people, with a delay of 7 days in reporting new cases, according to official data.
The province’s acting director for public health and health care agency, dr. Clayton Chau, told Voice of OC on Friday morning that Orange County must indeed make more progress before state relief in the region applies.
Although “we hope our case per 100,000 will be under 14 within a week or so,” Chau said in a text message.
The province, if it were to achieve under the new leadership of the state, could also allow sports such as baseball, cheerleading and softball to be played without the weekly test requirements.
Currently, the province is limited under its purple level status to allow only sports with little contact, such as badminton, cycling and golf, to be played.
Meanwhile, Orange County teachers and food and agricultural workers could get the Coronavirus vaccine as early as next week, even as provincial officials find their vaccination sites due to supply delays caused by severe weather conditions in the US.
Provincial officials plan to provide ‘30% ‘of a new vaccine supply next week’ to vaccinate educators, childcare, food and agricultural workers, ‘according to Chau.
“I do not think (the recent delays in supply) will influence us to get these additional sector populations vaccinated,” Chau said in a text message.
All allocations of vaccines to the country has been prioritized so far for health workers and the elderly aged 65 and over.
“Starting next week, we should be able to get the educators vaccinated,” Chau said. virtual city hall Wednesday night with provincial supervisor Doug Chaffee and the province’s Spanish language outreach specialist Martin Plascencia. ‘I want to remind people that they are eligible for educators over the age of 65 to enroll and to be vaccinated.
Asked by Voice or OC on Thursday whether teachers have access to mass vaccination centers such as Soka University or Santa Ana College, Chau said: “Yes, but we plan to work with OECD and the district vaccination sites on school campuses throughout the OC to stand up. “
“We follow the CDC’s guidance in the strategy to limit barriers to access to vaccination for teachers, such as vaccination clinics at or near schools. We have planned for that with OECD and the school districts, ”he added.
Asked by Plascencia – with questions from the public at City Hall – whether it would also apply to school staff, Chau said “we are working with OECD (the Department of Education) and all school district superintendents.”
The Santa Ana Unified School District, for one, is planning “our priority list for who will get the vaccines in the phase first,” said district spokeswoman Fermin Leal.
“This will include an employee facing the public – our lunch and conservation staff,” Leal said. ‘We also hear different things about how many vaccines are available. We do not expect it to be tens of thousands for everyone – just a limited quantity and a kind of scaling up. ”
There are questions about how it can play out in the reopening strategies in the country.
“Most of the local openings will be based on local geographic positivity rates,” Chau said in City Hall.
“We also follow the CDC’s guidance that access to vaccination should not be considered a condition for the reopening of schools for personal education,” Chau also said in a text message.
Leal said SAUSD does not plan to reopen on the basis of vaccines: ‘We are still in a wait-and-see mode. Our numbers drop to Covid-19 positivity rates. There is a possibility that we can open without vaccines if our numbers are low enough. ‘
Tamara Fairbanks, president of the Newport-Mesa school district’s education department, said her district ‘was in a hybrid model, and we met with students even during the biggest trainings, and I believe it’s some anxiety. will relieve. for teachers who have already worked personally. ”
Fairbanks said teachers should be vaccinated, along with ensuring that the school district adheres to and enforces school safety guidelines.
‘We had to constantly strive for compliance with safety and compliance with safety during personal learning. I do not think it changes, but it especially alleviates concern. As for basic teachers because they are so involved and exposed because some of their children do not wear masks. I think it will cause concern. ”
Meanwhile, official data shared in Wednesday City Hall showed that more than 635,000 patients had registered with the province’s vaccination app Othena. Of that number, nearly 196,000 people were vaccinated with 261,000 appointments still scheduled.
Chau said the app will start asking users if they meet the requirements.
“People are frustrated because we do not have enough vaccines in Orange County, and this is not just our country, this is for all provinces … The demand is really higher than the number of vaccinations available,” he said. added:
“I’m hope there will be more vaccines in Orange County in a few weeks.”
The number of people hospitalized with the virus is still declining and stands at 663 hospitalizations on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the death toll has continued to rise and stands at 3,685 since the start of the pandemic, with 41 new deaths reported on Thursday.
To date, there have been 243,665 confirmed cases.
In that context, Orange County has averaged 20,000 deaths due to other causes since 2016, including 543 annual flu deaths, according to state health data.
According to the state’s death statistics, cancer kills more than 4,600 people, heart disease kills more than 2,800, more than 1,400 die as a result of Alzheimer’s disease and strokes kill more than 1,300 people.
According to the latest available state data, Orange County exceeded its annual average of 20,000 deaths, with 23,883 people in December.
Meanwhile, Coronavirus is killing the flu, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and strokes as a cause of death in Orange County. Currently, there is only more cancer that kills more residents each year than the virus.
Here is the latest information on virus numbers in Orange County:
Infections | Hospitalizations and deaths | City-by-city data | Demographics