Millions of coronavirus vaccine doses have been distributed across California’s Orange County over the last few months. Despite that, Orange County continues to address a steep increase in the COVID-19 case count. Over 15,000 coronavirus disease cases have been reported after New Year’s weekend.
There were over a million coronavirus cases on January 03, 2022, the most cases for a single day since the start of the epidemic. From December 28, 2021, to January 04, 2022, the OC Health Care Agency (HCA) reported over 25,000 coronavirus cases in the US county. After the US Holiday period, HCA reported 5 coronavirus-related deaths too.
On January 05, 2022, the high case count trend continued as the OC Health Care Agency reported over 4,500 new coronavirus cases, with 4 more deaths. Around 5,900 coronavirus deaths have been recorded to date.
Besides the daily COVID-19 case count, hospitalizations have increased to over 600 in the first such occurrence since July last year. The hospitalization count has increased from 256 to 673 from December 25, 2021, to January 05, 2022. The adult ICU bed count in the nation is listed at about 22% capacity as 116 individuals require intensive care.
Professor Andrew Noymer of epidemiology from the University of California, Irvine, is more bothered about the COVID-19 hospitalization count than positive COVID-19 tests. Noymer described Omicron as generally a mild medical syndrome. As for Noymer, the key issue is the fact that the latest number of individuals hospitalized with coronavirus disease is up. Noymer stated that numerous people catch Omicron and are getting hospitalized due to it and that the hospitalization count has tripled since December last year. According to Noymer, Omicron is more contagious as compared to the Delta strain, which is more transmissible than the Alpha variant.
Omicron may be milder but carries a much shorter period of incubation. Noymer stated that it has introduced certain epidemiological challenges, given the steep curve of the most recent surge. Noymer finds some pandemic curves unbelievable and described those as rocket-like spikes. Noymer stated that the skyrocketing situation exists due to the transmissibility and shorter period of incubation of the coronavirus Omicron strain.
In Irvine, coronavirus trends reflect the sentiment that Noymer shared. From December 21 to 28, 2021, Irvine reported 902 coronavirus cases, including 112 cases among kids aged under 17 years. The case count increased more than twice over the next week. From December 28, 2021, to January 04, 2022, the US city reported a drastic spike to 2,545 coronavirus cases, including 401 cases among children.
Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) students came back to in-person education on January 03, 2022, as well. However, IUSD has told each student to stay back home if they have sickness or coronavirus disease symptoms.
IUSD is offering many testing options to help address the transmission of coronavirus disease between school kids, including testing kits for free for IUSD staffers and students. Testing kits are accessible in the case of saliva or nasal swabs.
IUSD has also recommended that families who have health insurance policies contact their family healthcare providers to locate coronavirus test centers.
As of last December, HCA reported that over 2 million individuals were fully vaccinated. However, notwithstanding the high portion of vaccinated people, only less than one million people have got booster shots with Orange County.
The surge in coronavirus cases after the holiday period comes when health experts keep urging caution and recommending more attention to the new Omicron strain. Orange County has not yet reported over 50 coronavirus cases associated with that variant, but breakthrough infections keep occurring.
Sanghyuk Shin of the University of California, Irvine, stated that he is bothered about the presence of the strain, even in vaccinated people. HCA reported the first coronavirus Omicron case in the US county only around a month ago. Shin also stated that he feels that this new strain has been spreading in the area for a while because of laboratory testing delays.
As for Shin, it appears that vaccinations have limited efficacy in preventing coronavirus Omicron infections unless people have gotten booster shots. Shin stated that the booster vaccine makes the infection less likely. However, there have already been super-spreading occurrences in vaccinated individuals, including those with coronavirus booster shots. Therefore, Shin reckons that it would be tricky to prevent the transmission of Omicron using vaccinations alone.
As per Shin, almost every person with full vaccination possibly has a mild illness. Shin feels that some vaccinated individuals would unfortunately have severe disease. It makes sense because there is a large group of people without vaccination even today. Therefore, Shin is bothered about a spike in the number of individuals requiring hospitalization, which would place an undue burden on the US healthcare system.
The case count may continue to go up, but health experts keep reiterating the requirement for universal access to vaccination. Shin stated that there is no universal access to coronavirus vaccines.
Shin stated that widespread immunity gained from infection or vaccines would eventually make the disease less severe. However, Shin reckons that the non-equitable distribution of coronavirus vaccines across the globe might contribute to the emergence of new coronavirus strains. Therefore, Shin recommends doing everything possible to share existing knowledge on creating the vaccines to increase the manufacturing of these products globally. Taxpayer money funds most of the vaccine manufacturing process.
