SANTA ANA (CNS) — The Orange County Health Care Agency Monday announced 216 newly confirmed COVID-19 infections, raising the cumulative caseload to 43,925, but no new fatalities were reported, leaving the death toll at 810.

The zero fatalities was welcome news following a week in which 89 deaths were reported between August 9 and Saturday.

On Sunday, just one fatality was reported, a sharp drop from the previous two days, which each saw 20 deaths confirmed. Because of the way hospitals report the numbers, it can at times take up to a week before a fatality is confirmed as COVID-19 related and is reported to the county.

In the week in which 89 deaths were tallied, 13 actually occurred during that time period.

The most recent fatalities actually occurred last Thursday, when two people died. Two people also died last Tuesday, and four died last Monday. The deadliest day since the pandemic began was July 8, when 16 people died. The other deadliest days were June 24, July 7 and July 11 when 15 people died on each of those dates.

Some other indicators seemed to be moving in the right direction, too. The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in the county's hospitals dropped from 422 to 414, with the number of patients in intensive care units dipping from 133 to 132.

The rate of residents testing positive for COVID-19 in the county decreased from 6.9 percent to 6.8 percent. The state's desired threshold is 8 percent. The county's case rate per 100,000 residents dropped from 117.9 to 109.7, which is 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 -2 percent to -3.3 percent, which is lower than the state's threshold.

The county had 29 percent of intensive care unit beds available, which is better than the state's 20 percent threshold. And the county's hospitals also have 56 percent of their ventilators available, well above the state standard of 25 percent.

The county reported that 553,822 COVID-19 tests have been conducted, including 6,907 reported Monday. There have been 34,909 documented recoveries.

Case counts had been up and down for about a week due to a backlog with the state's system, but Orange County Health Care Agency officials reported Thursday that their statistics were up to date.

As students are reporting back to school, Orange County officials are also keeping an eye on coronavirus cases among children. The state is allowing schools in grades up to sixth to apply for a waiver from all online learning.

As of Monday, 443 children up to 3 years old have tested positive for COVID-19, 611 children 4 to 9 years old have been infected, 466 between 10 to 12 have tested positive, 436 between 13 and 14 have gotten the virus, and 1,545 between 15 and 18 have gotten coronavirus.