Here's How Many Laguna Beach +65 Residents Are Vaccinated

LAGUNA BEACH, CA —Orange County's promising COVID-19 trends continued Thursday as only 69 new cases were reported and hospitalizations remained stable. Nearly 900,000 residents of Orange County are fully vaccinated against coronavirus as of Thursday, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.

In Laguna Beach, almost 80 percent of residents over 65-years-old have been fully vaccinated, according to OC Health Care reports.

Across Orange County, an average of 80 percent of residents above the age of 65-years-old have now had at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

Read Laguna Beach Pharmacy Now Offering Coronavirus Vaccine

Across Orange County, just over 30 percent of residents below 65-years-old have now had at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

All of our 3.2 million residents are now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

The cumulative case count since the pandemic began has reached 253,275.

On Thursday, the county also logged eight more COVID-19 fatalities, but one of those occurred in December as there are commonly lengthy delays in the accounting of the deaths. The overall death toll now stands at 4,910.

The number of COVID patients in county hospitals remained at 110, the same as Wednesday, as the number of those in intensive care units decreased from 23 to 22.

The county has 35.5% of its ICU beds available and 74% of its ventilators.

Meanwhile, Providence, the national nonprofit healthcare provider, partnered with Edwards Lifesciences, an Orange County-based medical technology company, and the cities of Irvine, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa and Tustin to open two mass vaccination clinics.

One opened Wednesday at the Edwards Lifesciences offices at 3009 Daimler St. in Santa Ana, and the other at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine will open on Monday as a drive-thru clinic.

Other vaccination sites are also available, through local pharmacies, such as CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens, with more vaccines available weekly.

Coronavirus daily case rates continue to decline, but not enough for Orange County to move into the less-restrictive yellow tier of the state's Blueprint for a Safer Economy.

According to numbers released Tuesday, the county's weekly averages for adjusted daily case rate per 100,000 residents improved from 3 last Tuesday to 2.8. The overall positivity rate improved from 1.6% to 1.4%.

The county's Health Equity Quartile rate, which measures positivity in hotspots in disadvantaged communities, improved from 1.8% to 1.7%. The county's positivity rates qualify for the least restrictive yellow tier of the state system, but the case counts are still in the orange tier.

The elusive yellow tier requires that the case rate must get below 2 per 100,000 population.

Another 10,511 COVID-19 tests were logged Thursday for a total of 3,578,578.

The eight additional deaths logged Thursday raised the death toll in December to 931 and 1,509 in January. Those were the deadliest months since the pandemic began, with fatalities fueled by holiday activities.

The death toll so far in April is eight. The death toll for March stands at 170, and 573 for February.

City News Service, Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig contributed to this report.