Orange County reported 25 more deaths related to the new coronavirus on Saturday, the third highest day on record, as the number of confirmed cases continues to rise.
Health officials said 109 deaths have been reported in the past two weeks, and 494 since the pandemic began. The deaths reported Saturday included seven people living in institutional settings like nursing homes.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the county increased to 29,011, with 702 new cases reported on Saturday. The number of infections in Orange County has grown dramatically in the past month, and is now second only to Los Angeles County.
In California, coronavirus transmission rates continued to increase. The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 exceeded 375,000 on Friday, and the number of deaths exceeded 7,600.
Governor Gavin Newsom added Orange County to its coronavirus watch list because the proportion of COVID-19 tests that have tested positive and the number of people infected per 100,000 residents are too high to meet state benchmarks.
Over a seven-day period, 13.9% of the COVID-19 tests tested positive. In the past two weeks, officials have confirmed 12,531 new cases, an average of 396 positive tests per 100,000 Orange County residents, a rate equivalent to that of Los Angeles County.
Orange and Riverside counties have seen the number of hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 infections nearly triple in the past two months. In San Bernardino County, that number has more than quadrupled. All three counties allowed many businesses to reopen a week before Los Angeles County.
California has ordered covering its face in public settings since June 18. But Orange County has become a hotbed of opposition to that rule, sparking concern from public health officials who say coatings are among the most effective tools to slow the spread of the virus.
The former Orange County health official resigned after receiving weeks of verbal abuse, including a death threat, over his mandatory mask order.
Last week, education officials approved recommendations that would allow the reopening of public schools in the fall without requiring social distancing or mandatory mask policies, prompting an immediate reaction.
