Orange County is different from LA in that its numbers have basically only been going in one direction since the pandemic started: up https://twitter.com/ThePinkDalek/status/1277041599403315201

Orange County's cases, hospitalizations and, most concerningly, deaths from covid-19 began spiking sharply earlier this month https://www.latimes.com/projects/california-coronavirus-cases-tracking-outbreak/orange-county/

Orange County is one of four suburban counties in California primarily responsible for the recent rise in covid hospitalizations statewide. that sharp slope on the right is not good https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-24/4-suburban-california-counties-behind-dangerous-spike-in-covid-19-hospitalizations

California requires that counties meet certain metrics to continue reopening -- a less than 10% increase in hospitalizations over the past 3 days, and fewer than 8% of people tested for covid testing positive. as of Friday, OC is failing both metrics https://ochca.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/cc4859c8c522496b9f21c451de2fedae

this is a great @ocregister story by @iwhlr that explains where OC is right now -- on the precipice of failing the state's standards. state officials say they will see if these trends continue before making a decision to add to OC to their watch list https://www.ocregister.com/2020/06/26/orange-county-on-edge-of-california-coronavirus-watch-list/

currently 15 CA counties (not OC) are on the watch list, meaning they're failing at least one state standard. Imperial County, on the list, was told by Newsom this week to reinstate stay at home due to surges in hospitalizations. watch list counties here
https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/CountyMonitoringDataStep2.aspx

OC itself created guidelines that would trigger a slowing of reopening, but they're kind of vague and I'm not sure where these metrics are. the 2nd one seems to be happening now though

it seems like the next step will be state health officials and OC health officials working together to figure out what's going on and trying to limit the spread of the virus in the county. if the county is uncooperative, then the state could take more drastic action.