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Orange County reported an additional seven COVID-19 fatalities Friday, pushing the region’s total death toll past 700.

While a far cry from the record 32 deaths reported Thursday, the latest fatalities demonstrate that the novel coronavirus is continuing to take a toll on the county, even as officials weigh whether to reopen some schools for in-person instruction.

A frustration of late in that regard, for Orange County and across the state, has been significant issues with the CalREDIE electronic system, which collects information from laboratories and feeds it to state and local health departments.

A series of data failures have created a backlog of as many as 300,000 test results, the state said Friday, and left counties in the dark as to precisely how many new coronavirus infections have been confirmed in their communities.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.