Orange County’s COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations continue rising

The county’s testing positivity rate increased from 11.1% as of Thursday to 13.9% as of Monday. … “It’s gone up and keeps going up,” Andrew Noymer, an epidemiologist and UC Irvine [associate] professor of [public] health, told City News Service Tuesday. “But the ICU only went up by one and that’s giving me some reassurance that it’s not that bad. But I’m worried about the direction of testing positivity.” … “Everything is in the purple,” Noymer said, referring to the state’s old color-coded system to determine when it would be safe to open up commerce more. Purple reflected the worst level.