O.C. health officials report school reopenings have so far not caused increase in new COVID-19 cases

By Sara CardineStaff Writer

Oct. 1, 2020 6:33 PM PT

Despite a spike in coronavirus infections that prevented Orange County from moving to the state’s less restrictive orange reopening tier this week, health officials assure recent school reopenings have so far not contributed a significant number of new cases.

“We’ve really seen minimal COVID activity in the schools in our county,” Matt Zahn, medical director for the Orange County Health Care Agency said in a news conference Thursday.

“We know that there’s certainly the potential for cases — we’re going to have cases in our schools,” he continued, “but I think what we’ve seen so far has been quite encouraging.”

Zahn stressed working with schools to identify positive cases and to quarantine those who may have been exposed will be a priority in the weeks ahead.

Orange County was placed in the “substantial transmission” red tier on Sept. 8 and was maintaining relatively low rates of new infections and positive tests, indicating it might move into the lower “moderate transmission” orange tier soon. But on Tuesday, officials reported an increase that thwarted progress.

Frank Kim, the county executive officer, said the shift from an average of 3.6 new cases per 100,000 residents to 4.4 cases this week, when distributed throughout Orange County’s total population, amounted to only a slight daily uptick.

“What we’re talking about is 30 or so cases spread across 800 square miles and 3.2 million people,” Kim said. “We’re not seeing a dramatic rise, let’s say, in the college population or skilled nursing facility. It is happening broadly across the community.”

Starting Tuesday, California counties will be required to meet a new metric to move tiers and expand reopenings, this time focusing on eliminating transmission disparities among those more impacted by the virus, including Latinos, essential workers and the socioeconomically disadvantaged.

To move into the yellow tier, Orange County will have to keep both its countywide positivity rate and the rate for those groups at or below 2%, while also keeping its case rate at or below 2 per 100,000 for two consecutive weeks.

Counties may alternatively submit a plan identifying impacted groups and their higher positivity rates and showing how the county will provide a commensurate amount of grant funding to reduce coronavirus transmissions in those groups.

Funds may be used for increased testing, contact tracing, quarantine and isolation support as well as education and outreach for workers.

“The goal is to address exposure in all communities, especially those disproportionately impacted by COVID-19,” Margaret Bredehoft, the county’s deputy director of public health services, said Thursday.

Bredehoft said Orange County has already made great strides in addressing such disparities, creating a Latino Health Equity Initiative this summer in concert with assistance organizations that directly serve impacted residents.

“We’ve already put in place some great efforts … to close this gap in disparities and are making good progress,” she added.

Orange County health officials on Thursday reported 158 new coronavirus cases countywide and seven more deaths, bringing the total number of infections to 53,909 and the fatality rate to 1,275.

A total of 173 individuals were being treated in area hospitals, 45 of whom were in intensive care units. The county average rate of new cases stood at 4.4 per 100,000, and officials reported an average testing positivity rate of 3.1%. Approximately 48,548 countywide are thought to have recovered from the virus.

Below are the coronavirus case counts and deaths for select cities in Orange County: