SANTA ANA—Orange County’s COVID-19 positivity rates and hospitalizations continued to improve Feb. 2, but the county also logged 53 more fatalities as death reports from the holiday case surge continue to roll in. The adjusted daily case rate per 100,000 population dropped from 46.6 last week to 39 on Feb. 2, and the test positivity rate on a seven-day average, with a seven-day lag, dropped from 12.9 percent to 10.9 percent. The numbers for the state’s color-coded tier framework are updated on Feb. 2. The county’s Health Equity Quartile Positivity Rate, which measures the cases in highly affected, needier parts of the county, declined from 16.6 percent last week to 13.9 percent. To move to the less-restrictive red tier from the top, purple, tier in the state’s coronavirus regulatory system, the county has to improve to 4 to 7 new daily cases per 100,000 and a 5 percent to 8 …