THE CASE count for COVID-19 in Orange County declined again in Thursday’s report (Shutterstock).

The count of confirmed new cases of coronavirus in Orange County fell sharply in Thursday’s report from Wednesday’s statistics.

According to the county health care agency, today’s tally (compiled on Wednesday) was 142, down from yesterday’s 236. Deaths stayed the same at nine.

Hospitalizations rose from 67 to 78 and the number of patients being treated for COVID-19 in intensive care units increased from 11 to 16.

Since the pandemic began, Orange County has had 547,935 cases of coronavirus, of which 537,756 are considered recovered. The death toll is at 6,919.

According to The New York Times, new cases nationally have declined by 2 percent and deaths by 35 percent over the past 14 days. In California, Los Angeles Times reports that new cases are down 31 percent and deaths by 43 percent over a similar period.

John Hopkins University reports that there have been over 495 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide. Of those, 6.1 million have died. The United States has had the most cases (80.2 million) and deaths (984,307).