More than 22,000 COVID-19 cases were reported county-wide in Orange County on Monday, Jan. 10, as data from the Orange County Health Agency COVID-19 Dashboard showed more than 80 percent of people hospitalized with COVID-19 are not fully vaccinated.

As the post-holiday surge continues, hospitals in Orange County are seeing non-vaccinated patients fill beds in and outside of the ICU. In terms of Orange County’s ICU capacity, on January 10, only 21.3% of adult hospital beds in the county were available.

Countywide, 964 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19. Of that total, 140 required ICU admittance.

In terms of numbers in the ICU, 88% of patients are not vaccinated. In the general population, 87% of COVID-19 cases are unvaccinated individuals, according to HCA COVID-19 dashboard.

On Monday, OC HCA reported 22,945 new COVID-19 cases, and two deaths, between January 7 and January 10. In total, Orange County is nearing 400,000 cases. To date, HCA has reported 5,908 COVID-19 related deaths, three of which were pediatric in children under five.

“This is yet another somber reminder that we must continue to do everything we can to protect our loved ones, especially our little ones under five years of age who are not able to be vaccinated,” Dr. Clayton Chau, HCA Director and County Health Officer, said in a statement.

As the virus continues to spread across California, in Orange County the Omicron variant appears to be circulating. Since O.C.’s first case of Omicron was reported on December 17, there are more than 250 cases of the variant county-wide.

Between December 13 and December 19 HCA reported 92 Omicron cases. A week later, between December 20 and December 26, a total of 185 Omicron cases were reported.

“COVID-19 has been spreading very quickly. Cases are reaching levels that we haven’t seen throughout this pandemic,” Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, Deputy County Health Officer said.

“We strongly urge our county residents and visitors to please take all preventative measures to reduce your risk of getting sick or hospitalized,” Chinsio-Kwong said. “Even though breakthrough infections are possible, the most important thing you can do is get vaccinated and boosted to maximize your immunity to COVID-19 and reduce your chance of getting severely infected.”

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