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Spencer Custodio |
Orange County’s second wave of coronavirus is steadily increasing positivity rates in the central and northern parts of the county to double-digit numbers not seen since the first summer wave, raising alarm bells among some community leaders.
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More than one in ten people test positive for the virus in some areas of Anaheim, Buena Park, Fullerton, Garden Grove, La Habra, Santa Ana and Westminster, according to county data Health care agency.
Almost all of South OC still has single-digit positivity rates, with the exception of San Juan Capistrano, which has a 10.1% positivity rate.
“The disparities still exist and we are seeing an increase and it’s more prevalent than Anaheim and Santa Ana,” said Ellen Ahn, executive director of Korean nonprofit community services at Buena Park.
Ahn and his staff are already in a rush, she said.
“It’s going to be a nightmare. Hope this doesn’t turn into what we went through in July with the lab delays and we’re all stretched out. We are already stretched. ”
During the first wave, which saw more than 700 people hospitalized in July, the popular, often Latino neighborhoods of Anaheim and Santa Ana were particularly affected.
The virus has also started to spread disproportionately to Asian communities in cities like Buena Park and Garden Grove.
Public health experts, epidemiologists and community leaders, like Ahn, have said the disproportionate impacts stem from overcrowded housing, lack of access to health care and the fact that many residents are unable to afford it. work from home.
“Because we work in essential jobs, we live with multigenerational families – we live in overcrowded housing,” Ahn said in a phone interview last Friday.
Latino Health Access executive director America Bracho said its call center was overloaded with residents requesting testing and isolation resources. She said that on November 15 there were already more calls than everything last month.
“He’s just inundated with calls. We hire more people, train more people. It’s just nonstop. You can see it because of the outbreak, but it’s also good news that we have a call center that can help you, ”Bracho said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
And they won’t let go during the holidays, she said.
“We have hotels, we have food. We have a team. So we respond. We’re not closing – we’re going to help people every day, ”Bracho said.
The uneven impact caused the County Health Care Agency to partner with the Santa Ana-based nonprofit. Access to Latin health in June and a crowd of Asian American and Pacific Islander community groups last month, such as Korean Community Services.
Community groups bring tests, food, medical supplies and other essentials and education to neighborhoods where residents face language barriers and overcrowded housing.
The organizations are also teaming up with county authorities to place infected people who live in overcrowded accommodation in hotels so they can quarantine and prevent the spread of the virus.
Latinos make up 35% of the population in Orange County, but account for almost 48% of all cases and almost 43% of deaths.
The county’s aggregate data on the Asian community does not indicate a disparity like it does for the Latin American community. Overall, the community represents 21% of the population and accounts for almost 9% of cases and almost 19% of deaths.
But there are pockets in Buena Park, Garden Grove and Westminster where positivity tests are approaching 12%.
Since the pandemic began in March, the virus has killed 1,559 CO residents out of 73,152 confirmed cases, according to the county Health Care Agency Data.
The virus has already killed nearly three times as many people in Orange County as the flu on average each year.
For the background, Orange County has recorded an average of around 20,000 deaths per year since 2016, including 543 annual flu deaths, according to health data status.
According to these same statistics, cancer kills more than 4,600 people, heart disease kills more than 2,800, more than 1,400 die of Alzheimer’s disease and strokes kill more than 1,300 people.
The county is on track to exceed its annual death average with more than 19,000 deaths in October, according to state of health data.
Ahn said the housing conditions for many Asians in Garden Grove and Buena Park are more crowded than Irvine’s.
At the end of last week, Ahn said they were already seeing test rates rise steadily.
“We are very worried, our test numbers are increasing. Today we had a testing event in Southland – this is a federally qualified Vietnamese community health clinic, ”Ahn said. “We typically have an average of 70 to 80 tests per day – we’re almost 250 today.”
Bracho said she is seeing similar test patterns.
“We’re seeing what you are seeing: an increase in the numbers,” Bracho said. “We see a site like Magnolia (high school) in Anaheim, where we normally do 120 tests on Monday – we did close to 700. In a place like a small school in Santa Ana, on a very busy day we could do 180. We also did almost 700. In Capistrano, we did almost 500 tests. We work three, four times what we normally get. ”
OC virus cases have exploded over the past week, averaging over 900 new cases per day.
The Orange County Health Care Agency reported 1,199 new cases on Wednesday.
Such increases haven’t been seen since late June, when the first wave hit the county.
State public health officials said about 13% of new cases end up in hospitals within two to three weeks.
Orange County hospitalizations have steadily increased this month.
As of Wednesday, 479 people were hospitalized, including 113 in intensive care units. Earlier this month, 183 OC residents were hospitalized.
Ahn said some in the community at large have relaxed public health precautions.
“The truth is, the community has let its guard down. Our numbers were relatively low and we have all experienced COVID fatigue, ”she said. “Everyone got a little more cowardly with the wearing of masks, social distancing wasn’t happening, people were coming together – whatever public health officials talked about, it contributes to that.
She is not alone in what she sees.
Bracho also said there was some viral fatigue in the community.
“The problem isn’t the refusal to wear the masks – that’s not what we see in the community. The problem is inside the house, it’s the whole housing issue and people give up and say, ‘I can’t do anything, I have to live in these circumstances,’ ”she says.
The two community leaders said the new cases also came from people bringing the virus home after work, where it is easily spread in crowded living situations.
Ahn and Bracho, along with public health officials, are urging residents to avoid big Thanksgiving dinners and instead celebrate with the people they live with to reduce the spread.
“Everyone is preparing for the worst the following week,” Ahn said.
Bracho said some people might not follow all of the guidelines, but is hoping Thanksgiving dinners are outside, with plenty of space between people in what she called a “risk reduction” strategy. “.
“We’re all waiting to see what happens after Thanksgiving. So if it’s bad now, what is going to happen after all these gatherings?
Here are the latest figures on viruses in Orange County from county data:
Infections | Hospitalizations and Deaths | City by city data | Demography
Spencer Custodio is a Voice of OC reporter. You can reach him at [email protected] Follow him on twitter @SpencerCustodio
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