Updated: Where is coronavirus in Sacramento? County shows map of confirmed cases by ZIP code
Sacramento County has released data and a map showing confirmed coronavirus cases by ZIP code, offering a bit more insight into which neighborhoods have seen the highest concentration of the virus that causes COVID-19 cases so far.
The map shows some fascinating patterns, but the data do not give specific numbers for any ZIP codes with fewer than five confirmed cases.
County officials told The Sacramento Bee that those ZIP code areas could have anywhere from zero to four cases.
It should be noted that even with this five-case minimum, sample sizes for cases within each ZIP code are relatively small. No ZIP code had more than 36 cases, and most had somewhere between 10 and 20.
Where is coronavirus activity common in Sacramento County?
Updated 11:45 a.m. Thursday, April 9
The data currently available now includes infection totals for nearly 40 ZIP codes within Sacramento County, while about 10 others did not have a minimum of five confirmed cases. The combined total of cases for those with at least five added up to 585, out of 613 infections now confirmed countywide as of midday Thursday.
Case totals in the included ZIP codes ranged from five (95816, which is midtown Sacramento, and 95832, which is Freeport) to 36 (95670, the majority of Rancho Cordova and Gold River).
Keeping in mind that the data set is incomplete, with almost 30 cases missing due to unknown addresses, the ZIP code breakdown gives a glimpse of which neighborhoods have seen denser concentrations of coronavirus cases relative to one another.
Those with relatively high totals include Rancho Cordova and Gold River; Antelope (33 in 95843); the northern Oak Park area near UC Davis Medical Center (32 cases in 95817); North Highlands (21 in 95660); and Citrus Heights (19 in the east part of the city, 95610, and 14 in 95621, the west half).
Similar totals were seen in Elk Grove as well: 17 in south Elk Grove (95757); 19 in Elk Grove east of Highway 99 (95624); and 23 in Elk Grove’s Laguna area (95758).
Several other ZIP codes that are home to suburban neighborhoods have had more than a dozen confirmed cases: The northern part of Arden Arcade (95821) has had 26 COVID-19 infections; greater Carmichael (95608) had 21; Rosemont and La Riviera (95826) have had 20; North Natomas has had 18; the Mather area (95827) south of Rancho Cordova has had 17; the greater Fair Oaks area (95628) had 16; and south Oak Park and Tahoe Park (95820) had 15.
Lower totals could be seen in other parts of town — 13 in each of South Land Park and the city of Folsom; 11 in East Sacramento, east of 39th Street; seven in each of Orangevale, Old North Sacramento and Curtis Park; and five in each of midtown and the Freeport area. The rural city of Galt has had six.
However, county officials did not delineate which ZIP codes had zero cases.
Unreported case totals (which could be anywhere from zero to four) are noted in each of downtown (95814) as well Elverta (95626); and several other small neighborhoods.
Some of the ZIP codes had no reported cases as of Tuesday, including Delta areas like Courtland (95615) and Hood (95639), according to David Welch, fire chief of the Courtland Fire Protection District. The only reported case in the Delta was in Isleton, along the Delta, according to city-by-city data updated Tuesday morning by the county.
Although the highly contagious coronavirus, which causes the disease known as COVID-19, is known to spread more rapidly in dense urban centers, such as New York City, the current hot spot within the United States, it is not surprising that a high proportion of confirmed cases would come in Sacramento’s suburban or more rural areas.
About a million of the county’s roughly 1.5 million residents live outside the capital city’s limits. And what were once Sacramento’s hubs of activity — the midtown and downtown bar scenes, acclaimed local restaurants, Golden 1 Center and the likes — have all been virtually empty venues since Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mandatory stay-home order issued March 19.
More than half of the deaths reported so far, however, have come in Sacramento city limits, at 14 of 22.
The county also not include death totals in the ZIP code data.
City-by-city breakdown of deaths
The county as of Thursday morning has reported 613 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 22 fatalities — 14 deaths in the city of Sacramento; three in Elk Grove; one in Citrus Heights; and four outside of the county’s seven incorporated cities.
Officials note on the COVID-19 webpage that its city-by-city and ZIP code breakdowns only include cases for which patient addresses have been confirmed.
Because a lack of widespread testing means the true infection totals are certainly higher than the confirmed amount, it should be presumed that the virus is spreading in all corners of the county to some extent; even if they do not register on the county’s recent map, they could have as many as four confirmed cases.
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 11:34 AM.
