SANTA ANA, Calif. (CNS) — Orange County's COVID-19 infection rates continued gliding down as hospitalizations remained stable according to data released Thursday by the Orange County Health Care Agency.

Hospitalizations inched up from 159 Tuesday to 160 Wednesday (the latest figures available) while the number of intensive care unit patients remained at 29, according to the OCHCA.

The county also logged 17 additional deaths, raising the cumulative death toll to 6,721.

Of the fatalities logged Thursday, nine occurred in February, raising last month's death toll to 217. Six of the fatalities occurred in January, hiking that month's death toll to 515.

December's death toll stands at 108. November's death toll increased by one to 113, October's stands at 136, September's at 200 and August's at 186.

The death toll before the delta variant fueled a late-summer surge was 31 in July of last year, 20 in June, 26 in May, 47 in April, 202 in March and 620 for February. 

January 2021 was the deadliest month of the pandemic, with a death toll of 1,600, ahead of December 2020, the next-deadliest with 986 people lost to the virus. 

Since the end of January 2022, the county has logged two more pediatric fatalities, raising the death toll in that age group to five.

The county also reported 314 new infections Thursday, bringing the cumulative total to 542,056.

The new case rate per 100,000 people decreased from 7.1 Wednesday to 6.8 Thursday, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency. The testing positivity rate remained at 3%, and inched up from 3.4% to 3.5% in the health equity quartile, which measures underserved communities hardest hit by the pandemic.

The county had 29.2% of its ICU beds available and 66.3% of its ventilators as of Thursday. Local health officials become concerned when the level of ICU beds falls below 20%.

Of those hospitalized, approximately 83% are unvaccinated and 86% of those being treated in ICU are not inoculated, according to the OCHCA.

The case rate per 100,000 people decreased from 7.2 Feb. 26 to 4.6 March 5 for those fully vaccinated with a booster shot; from 5.9 to 4.6 for those fully vaccinated with no booster; and 12.2 to 8 for those not fully vaccinated. 

The number of fully vaccinated residents in Orange County rose from 2,437,965 last week to 2,441,941 Thursday, according to data released Thursday. That number includes an increase from 2,281,901 to 2,285,767 of residents who have received the two-dose regimen of vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna.

The number of residents receiving the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine increased from 156,064 to 156,174. Booster shots increased from 1,207,236 to 1,217,204.

In the most recently eligible age group of 5 to 11 years old, the number of children vaccinated increased from 82,166 to 83,724, versus 184,856 who have not been vaccinated. It's the least vaccinated age group in Orange County. The next-worst vaccinated eligible age group is 25 to 34, with 323,383 inoculated and 136,013 who have not received a shot.

The age group that has received the most booster shots is 55 to 64.