Orange on the mend after deadly August

Orange County has nearly halved its positivity rate over the past month, officials said Monday, signifying a county on the mend weeks after the deadliest month of the pandemic.

The day brought more hope with the announcement by Pfizer-BioNTech that its two-dose coronavirus vaccine has been shown to be safe and highly effective in children age 5 to 11 years.

The findings have not yet been peer-reviewed but the pharmaceutical partners plan to apply to the Food and Drug Administration by the end of September for authorization to use the vaccine in children, the New York Times reported.

“Having access to vaccines for that age group is going to mean the beginning of the end of the pandemic,” said Dr. Raul Pino, the

local state health officer.

Children between the ages of 5 and 14 continue to account for the highest percentage of new infections in the county.

According to the American Academy of Pediatricians, children now account for more than one in five new COVID-19 infections, and the highly contagious delta variant has sent more children into hospitals and intensive care units in the past few weeks than at any other time in the pandemic.

Both Pino and Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said strategies to distribute the vaccine for school-age children will begin immediately.

“There’s no question that the schools have to be central to that,” the mayor said

While health data is improving — the county’s positivity rate has fallen to 11.29% over the past two weeks — more improvement is needed to reach the 5% threshold the World Health Organization recommends. Last week saw a sharp 21% drop in total infections week over week, as shown by state data released Friday, with about 4,600 new cases reported. The peak came the week ending Aug. 12, when more than 9,500 infections were reported.

“This is much better than where we were just not too long ago,” Demings said. “This validates that our strategy of driving up the rate of vaccinations and increasing testing and also to the returning of wearing facial coverings has worked.”

In August, the rolling positivity rate reached as high as 22% as the death toll for that month has climbed to 388 in the county. The average age of people who have died with the virus over the past two months is 69, Pino said.

The county extended testing sites at Barnett Park, the Econ Soccer Complex and the former Clarcona Elementary School, as well as a vaccination site at Camping World Stadium through the end of October. The three sites are open every day, with the Barnett Park and Clarcona Elementary site open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., while the Econ Soccer Complex closes at 4 p.m. daily.

Pino said to prevent future spikes with holidays from Halloween through New Year’s Day approaching, unvaccinated people have time to roll up their sleeves and protect themselves and family members who they will see in the coming months.

“After all those holidays last year, we experienced a significant increase in the number of cases. What’s different is there was no vaccination at that time, so we’re not expecting that would happen at the same level at all,” Pino said. “If you’re planning to travel, if you’re planning to congregate, if you’re planning to see other family members who may come to visit and you’re not vaccinated, you still have time to be immunized by the holidays.”