In just one week, Orange County has added nearly 300 deaths due to the coronavirus.
The OC Healthcare Agency’s daily tracker listed 43 new deaths on Saturday, January 16, with a total of 2,320 known COVID-related deaths. The previous day, Friday, the country reported a one-day record of 82 deaths.
With some hope that new infections could subside for the time being, Orange County counted more than 700 fewer new cases of coronavirus on Saturday than a week earlier – from 4,204 to 3,454.
Reported deaths do not represent the actual sum of a particular day. The province’s data is compiled from death certificates or collected during the course of investigations, so that the deaths may have occurred days or weeks in advance.
Three of the deaths reported Saturday were competent residents of nursing homes, and two residents of shelters.
Since the discovery began, the province has verified a total of 209,365 cases of coronavirus.
While the vast majority of people who tested positive experienced milder symptoms, 542 coronavirus patients were in intensive care units as of Saturday – five less than the daily record of 547 last Sunday.
With the increase in cases after Thanksgiving and then Christmas gatherings, hospitals have struggled to meet the drastically increased demand. They have added temporary units in parking lots to accommodate extra beds.
Excessive medical staff work longer shifts and assume that more patients are cared for than the normal protocol allows.
Both hospitals and funeral homes used trailers with freezers to store a surplus.
The province’s state – adapted ICU bed availability remains at zero, although this does not mean that all ICU beds are occupied.
The California Department of Public Health takes the actual percentage of adult ICU beds each day and adjusts them to reflect the proportion of COVID-19 in intensive care compared to others who also need the beds for life-saving treatment.
The unadjusted availability of ICU beds in Southern California is reportedly 8.9% on Saturday.