Orange County resumes administering Johnson & Johnson vaccine
Orange County resumed administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine Sunday after it was paused at the urging of federal health officials due to rare cases of blood clotting in patients who had received the single-dose shot.
Dr. Clayton Chau, the county's chief public health officer and director of the OCHCA, said he believes the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is "safe and effective'' and that the risk of developing clotting is rare.
The county has reported just 66 new COVID-19 cases, along with eight additional deaths.
The number of coronavirus patients in county hospitals decreased from 113 Friday to 106 Saturday, while the number of intensive care unit patients rose from 22 to 27.
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Saturday's figures pushed the county's total to 253,914 cases and fatalities 4,965 fatalities since the pandemic began, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.
The county had 37.5% of its ICU beds and 76% of its ventilators available.
Orange County continues to see positive overall trends regarding the pandemic. "They're good,'' Orange County CEO Frank Kim told City News Service in response to Friday's numbers. "Hospitalizations dropped down. I'm happy to see that. But case rates and positivity has been essentially flat. They move up or down one-tenth of a point a day.''
The county continues to test at about the state average, Chau said. The county's average last week was 308.8 per 100,000 residents. Another 12,224 tests were logged , pushing the total to 3,669,312.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the county's Super POD sites at the Anaheim Convention Center, Soka University and Orange County Fairgrounds are accepting walk-ins as well as anyone with a confirmed appointment.
