Deaths Remain Low, Some COVID-19 Case Numbers Rise as OC Remains in Orange Tier

By Collin Breaux

Orange County is currently not in the yellow “minimal” tier of the state’s four-tier, color-coded COVID-19 monitoring system that spells out what level of activity is officially permitted.

The county has remained in the orange “moderate” tier since March 31. The area has met yellow tier qualifications as far as test positivity rate, but not when it comes to the number of daily cases. The yellow tier requires less than two cases for test positivity and per 100,000 people. Orange County’s positivity rate is 1.3% but the number of new cases per 100,000 is 2.4.

That case number, though, has gradually dropped over time. Last Tuesday, on April 27, it was 2.6.

Los Angeles County is poised to enter the yellow tier on Thursday.

There has been a slew of COVID-19 news throughout the country and world lately: The New York Times reports experts believe herd immunity is unlikely in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration is considering allowing Pfizer vaccines for children, and President Joe Biden wants 70% of adults to get one vaccine dose by July 4. India is seeing cases spike.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has set June 15 as a projected date for a full reopening of California, provided there have been enough vaccine doses administered and cases are low.

Orange County reported 6,161 COVID-19 tests on May 4, and has over 3.6 million cumulative tests so far. There have been 246,783 recoveries to date.

Nine deaths from COVID-19 were reported in Orange County on May 4. There have been 4,978 cumulative deaths in Orange County to date.

Cases have gradually increased in San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. There have been 80 cases in San Clemente and 48 cases in San Juan Capistrano in the past 30 days. On April 1, the 30-day county for the two towns was 49 for San Clemente and 30 for San Juan Capistrano.

There have been 27 cases in the last 30 days in Dana Point. On April 1, the 30-day case count for Dana Point was 38.

Deaths in the past 30 days, however, remain low for the tri-city area of Dana Point, San Clemente, and San Juan Capistrano, with one for each town.

A majority of counties in California are in the orange tier, though some are in the more restrictive red “substantial” tier. There are no counties in the widespread tier, 12 in the substantial tier, 39 in the moderate tier, and seven in the minimal tier.

Nationally, the United States has 32.5 million total cases and approximately 577,000 deaths in total as of Tuesday. California has approximately 3.75 million total cases and 62,215 deaths as of Tuesday. There are approximately 154 million cases worldwide in total.

Approximately 247 million vaccine doses have been administered nationally, with 106 million fully vaccinated. Approximately 32% of California’s population is fully vaccinated, and 32.1% of the country fully vaccinated. There have been over 30 million doses administered in California.

For the entire world, over 608 million people have gotten at least one dose, and 279 million are fully vaccinated, the latter representing 3.6% of the global population.