Rising COVID-19 Hospitalizations in Orange County, CA

COVID-19 hospitalizations are an indicator of the spread of the coronavirus in California. Number of hospitalizations can be a useful substitute metric when testing may still be too selective (not randomized or geographically spread).

Hospitalization count has been mentioned in recent state press conferences as one driver of the decision-making process.

The first image is a chart of California hospitalizations. Notice since mid-April we’ve been on a flat to slightly decreasing trend.

The second image is a chart of Orange County hospitalizations. Notice the trend is increasing hospitalizations per day. No flattening yet.

The state can choose to do nothing about this–the risk is that the upward trend will continue, or suddenly worsen. Or the state can take some action, such as the temporary beach closure last week.

Our everyday actions can help determine our future trend.

Posted to Nextdoor on May 3, 2020.

References

The COVID Tracking Project. (n.d.). Retrieved May 03, 2020, from https://covidtracking.com/

“California COVID-19 Hospitalizations” by Richard Kelly can be reused under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license

COVID-19 Case Counts and Testing Figures. (n.d.). Retrieved May 03, 2020, from https://occovid19.ochealthinfo.com/coronavirus-in-oc

“Orange County COVID-19 Hospitalizations” by Richard Kelly can be reused under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license