Orange County officials said Wednesday they are continuing to monitor increases in hospitalization levels due to the coronavirus but that the trends don’t necessarily mean the county needs to slow its reopening of the economy.

Coronavirus-related ICU hospitalizations have jumped 76% in the last six weeks in Orange County. During the week of May 4, the county reported a seven-day average of 94 people with confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections in its ICU beds. Last week, that number rose to an average of 165 hospitalized.

In early May, the number of people hospitalized for the virus in Orange County was in the low 200s. A month later, those figures had jumped to the high 200s and low 300s.

Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett attributes some of the uptick to outbreaks in skilled nursing homes. She also noted that about two dozen patients in Orange County hospitals were from Imperial County.

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