COVID Cases Decline in Aliso Viejo

Cristopher Pineda, Copy Editor

At the beginning of this year was the start of COVID-19 vaccinations, and with the lockdown and newly vaccinated people, the community cases in and around Aliso Viejo has significantly decreased in March.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid report that cases are down more than two-thirds since the peak in mid-December. Since the last week of January, there have been a total of 3 confirmed cases and zero deaths due to COVID-19 in Aliso Viejo.

Since Orange County’s rate of COVID cases has declined, Orange County will soon move from the Purple Tier to the Red Tier. Before it does, it has to meet certain criteria and benchmarks set by the State regarding daily case rate, positivity rate, and health equity rate for two consecutive weeks. The County of Orange believes that it will officially move to the red tier on March 17th. 

Vaccine distributions as well have gotten past Phase 1A and are currently working to provide vaccines for Phase 1B. Phase 1B includes people and workers related to Food and Agriculture, Education and Childcare, individuals 65-74 years of age, and the Homeless. Significantly moving into the next phase of vaccinations allows OC to try to open even quicker than imagined. 

COVID cases have been declining steadily over the past months because of people being more careful. With the threat of a variant strain in the air, people are starting to double mask more often because of this issue, lowering transmission. Another issue is there is less testing which means there could also be less case detection. Lastly, since there aren’t any huge holiday events in February and March, there have been fewer social gatherings, unlike December which had the most COVID cases.

Things are starting to take a turn for the better not only in Aliso Viejo but all over the country and the world. If vaccines continue at the rate they are providing, and people stay safe, the threat could be gone by the end of the year.