SANTA ANA (CNS) — The Orange County Health Care Agency Thursday reported 32 COVID-19 fatalities, raising the coronavirus death toll to 697, while the number of hospitalizations edged down. 

The 32 reported deaths are the highest on a single day since the pandemic began, and occurred over the past couple of weeks, but tend to get clustered together at times because the reports come from multiple sources. Some deaths occurred previously but are only now being reported.

The most deaths recorded in a single day is 15, which has been recorded three times: June 28, July 7 and 8.

Of Thursday's death toll, five were skilled nursing facility residents, three were assisted living facility residents and one was homeless. Since the pandemic began, 279 skilled nursing facility residents and 33 assisted living facility residents in Orange County have died of the virus.

Forty-eight fatalities have been reported since Sunday. The county logged 87 coronavirus deaths last week and 70 the week prior. Despite the large number of deaths, officials are optimistic the trends are heading in the right direction.

"If you look at the hospitalization numbers, the ICU rates peaked sometime around July and it has been trending steadily downward," county CEO Frank Kim told City News Service. "That's an encouraging sign. We've had a spike in hospitalization and ICU rates in the middle of July and both have been trending down since then. We think it's a positive sign and hopefully we're back down to a much more stable workable environment."

It's difficult to prognosticate because there have been glitches with the state's platform for reporting coronavirus case rates, Kim said. But officials are cautiously optimistic, he added.

Kim noted that the age group with the highest positivity rates are young adults, who also are among the least vulnerable to deaths. The numbers of deaths stemming from nursing homes has been steadily trending down, he said.

"So hopefully, we've reversed this trend" of fatalities, he said.

Kim also noted that the demand for COVID-19 tests has also significantly trended down at the county's testing site at the Anaheim Convention Center.

"The demand for testing has gone way down," Kim said. "We've had a huge percentage of testing capacity and it's free and yet less people are using it than several weeks ago."

County officials are discussing whether or not to open a second site at the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa since they can handle capacity now in Anaheim, Kim said.

He said it appears that more widespread usage of face coverings as well as the state's closure of bars and in-restaurant dining has played a substantial role in curbing the spread of the virus.

The number of patients being treated for COVID-19 in county hospitals dropped from 536 Wednesday to 517, while the number of patients in intensive care dipped from 172 to 171, according to the HCA.

The county also reported 580 more diagnoses of coronavirus, raising the cumulative total to 38,711.

Hospitalization statistics are a more reliable figure because hospitals use a different online software platform to report to the state, Kim noted. State officials have directed laboratories to send manual copies of test results as a backup until the software glitch is corrected, he said.

Orange County is on the state's watch list for counties experiencing high rates of new cases and hospitalizations. It has shown some improvement of late, with the rate of residents testing positive for COVID-19 dipping from 8.1% to the state's desired rate of 8%.

But its case rate per 100,000 residents inched up from 97.6 Wednesday to 97.9, far higher than the California Department of Public Health threshold of 25 per 100,000 residents.

The change in the three-day average of hospitalized patients went from -3.7% to -3.8%, much lower than the state's threshold of 10% increase.

Available ICU beds are at 36%, and the percentage of available ventilators at 56%. The state's threshold is 20% of ICU beds available to handle a surge and 25% ventilators on hand.

The county reported that 448,087 COVID-19 tests have been conducted, including 3,330 logged on Thursday. There have been 28,109 documented recoveries.

As local school officials prepare for classes to begin again, county officials are tabulating the number of coronavirus cases by various age groups.

Since the pandemic began, there have been 365 children up to age 3 who have been infected in the county; 466 in the 4-to-9-year-old age group; 365 from 10 to 12 years old; 344 among 13- and 14-year-olds; and 1,262 in the 15-to- 18-year-old age group.

The state has released updated guidance for youth sports activities, allowing activities to resume, but with participants adhering to physical distancing and safety protocols. Participants must stay six feet from each other and activities must take place outdoors as much as possible.