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Orange County officials are expressing growing concern about the spread of the coronavirus amid a nationwide surge caused by the highly contagious Delta variant.

As of Tuesday, 495 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized in Orange County, the highest number in about six months and nearly five times the number from a month ago when 102 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals on July 10.

Still, the recent number is far below the peak of the winter surge, when 2,259 people were hospitalized in Orange County’s hospitals.

Over the last week, Orange County has reported an average of 685 new coronavirus cases per day, according to data compiled by The Times. That’s more than a four-fold increase since mid-July, though still well below the case counts the region was regularly seeing during the height of the fall-and-winter surge.

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