Orange County’s coronavirus metrics gain ground; late vaccines arrive

A month and a half after three crucial COVID-19 tracking metrics shattered previous records during the worst surge yet, Orange County’s situation has improved to a point where it may soon qualify for the less-restrictive red tier of pandemic rules.

And because thousands are being vaccinated each day with more in store, growing immunity should keep driving metrics down – particularly the share of coronavirus tests coming back positive, said Dr. Clayton Chau, OC Health Care Agency director and county health officer.

Orange County’s health equity metric – or test positivity among neighborhoods where residents are more vulnerable to the pandemic’s effects – dropped to 7% this week, meeting the red tier requirement of 8% for the first time since fall, according to a state Department of Public Health metrics update Tuesday, Feb. 23.

Last week, the county’s health equity measured 10.6%.

Countywide testing positivity, the first metric to cross into red tier territory last week, improved further to 5.4% from 7.8% last week, meaning of every 100 people swab or spit tested in Orange County, roughly five are coronavirus-positive.

The laggard holding Orange County in the most-restrictive purple tier is its case rate, which also fell this week to 11.9 cases per day per 100,000 residents from 20.7 last week, but remained above the red tier threshold rate of 7.

But Chau noted to the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that the case rate “has dropped dramatically within the last month or so.”

Moving to the red tier would relax some restrictions in Orange County – a handful of business types and public places such as restaurants, movie theaters and gyms could once again welcome patrons indoors, but at limited capacity and with other rules in place to curb coronavirus spread.

All three metrics must fall within red tier ranges for two weeks before the shift is official. The majority of California’s 58 counties remained in the most-restrictive purple tier as of this week; only 11 counties were in lower tiers.

Late vaccines have arrived

Chau told county supervisors during a meeting Tuesday that a late shipment of vaccines staff should have received last week to keep mass vaccination sites running fully finally arrived that morning, and that this week’s allocation is expected Thursday.

Chau said that meant the Disneyland Super POD (point of distribution), which had been closed since Thursday due to dwindling supplies, could reopen Wednesday. He did not say whether two other county-run shot centers at Soka University and Santa Ana College also would immediately resume regular appointments.

But despite the supply line disruption caused in part by freezing weather back east, county officials had enough vaccines on hand to launch its latest large-scale site at the Anaheim Convention Center on Tuesday, where medical staff took on patients needing second doses.

Despite a slow start complicated by vaccine shortages and technical issues with state and county systems, Chau said the county is now making strong headway vaccinating vulnerable groups, such as non-White seniors.

The overall share of vaccinated Orange County seniors is encouraging, Chau said, and because seniors tend to have more severe cases of COVID-19 than younger, healthier people, the burden on local hospitals should ease going forward.

“We believe that we have passed over half of seniors over age 65 that have had at least one dose of the vaccine – that’s something to celebrate,” Chau said.

Blue Shield’s new role

County officials have been frustrated by the lack of details about how Blue Shield’s take over as the state’s vaccine administrator will work, but more information could come later this week.

On Tuesday, Chau told county supervisors he’ll meet with Blue Shield officials on Thursday. After the new administrator takes over (likely sometime next week) the county will get regular allocations of vaccines like other health providers, such as Kaiser Permanente and UCI Health, but will no longer have to supply doses to smaller medical offices and clinics, he said.

Chau also said it so far appears Orange County won’t be required to shift to using the state’s My Turn system for scheduling appointments and sharing vaccination data with the state, as long as it is able to transfer the information from the Othena platform, which the county spent $1.2 million to create.

With more than 700,000 users registered on Othena by Tuesday, county leaders have worried people would be confused about which system to use.

“I’m confident that we don’t have to give up Othena,” Chau said.

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