The Orange County Health Care Agency reported 47 new coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday, January 17, four more than on Saturday, for a total of 2,367 known COVID-related deaths.
The daily death toll does not represent an exact snapshot of how many people died on a given date. Instead, the count includes deaths that occurred days earlier on the basis of death certificates and completed case investigations.
Two days ago, on Friday, the county recorded a record 82 deaths in one day.
Of the deaths counted on Sunday, six were qualified nursing residents and eight were assisted living residents. None were inmates in Orange County. Thirty-three people who died did not live in facilities.
On Sunday, 538 people with COVID-19 were being treated at the Orange County hospital intensive care units.
The availability of beds in the ICU adjusted by the state of Southern California for patients with coronavirus remains at zero, in a format that does not reflect beds still open for patients facing other life-threatening emergencies. The unadjusted value shows 7.9% of the available ICU beds.
The county reported 1,448 new cases of coronanvirus on Sunday – less than half the sum of 3,454 on Saturday. In total, nearly 211,000 Orange County residents tested positive for coronavirus.
Orange County and all of California have experienced an explosion of cases since the fall, before Thanksgiving and Christmas meetings and trips resulted in an uninterrupted increase. Two months ago, on November 17, the county registered 352 new cases – a number that would soon increase more than tenfold.
Hospitals have struggled to meet the dramatic increase in demand – adding temporary units in parking lots to accommodate extra beds.
Due to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, OC Health Care Agency will not release new figures until Tuesday, January 19th.