Coronavirus updates: Sacramento supervisor eyes reopening as Yuba, Sutter set plans in motion
Sleep Train Arena — the now-defunct former home of the Sacramento Kings that has been operating as an emergency overflow hospital site to treat those suffering from coronavirus — has admitted its first patient.
Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the state Office of Emergency Services, confirmed that a single patient was recently transferred into the Sleep Train Arena Alternate Care Facility for treatment.
The arena was transformed into a field hospital in just two weeks through a state contract with the Sacramento Kings that costs taxpayers $500,000 per month.
The site includes the arena itself and the Kings’ old practice facility, the latter of which is housing the patient, Ferguson said.
Although Ferguson could not comment on the patient’s condition or origin, citing medical privacy concerns, health officials previously said that the smaller, practice facility is used to treat patients who have tested positive for COVID-19, while the larger arena will be taking on suspected cases.
Since opening on April 20, the site has so far accepted only one patient in two weeks, despite having capacity for about 400.
It remains to be seen if the hospital will fill the majority of its beds, prompting some to raise questions of the relative value of such an arrangement with the NBA team.
“It means we’ve done a good job controlling the virus,” Ferguson said. “We remain really early in this and we are cognizant that there may be resurgences and flare-ups.”
Cal OES is conducting daily outreach to hospitals to determine the level of need for patient overflow to field sites such as Sleep Train, according to Ferguson.
Sacramento County supervisor eyes reopening
Sacramento County Supervisor Sue Frost, who represents District 4, sent a letter out to the community Saturday that seemed to suggest she was ready to see a loosening of coronavirus restrictions.
“The curve has ‘flattened’ significantly — well beyond any of the early projections,” Frost said in her letter. “But as the initial two-week ‘shelter in place’ stretched into two months, the economic sacrifice has grown by leaps and bounds.”
She noted that her office has received constant complaints regarding the economic lockdown measures and many of her constituents have sought much needed assistance, as federal relief has not been sufficient to hold over everyone and state leadership keeps pushing back the timeline.
“The Governor laid out his vision for ‘re-opening the state.’ But it is arbitrary and lacks any real specifics or timelines,” Frost said. “Two weeks was a struggle for many — three months will be a disaster that will linger for years.”
District 4, which consists of parts of Rio Linda, Citrus Heights and Folsom, is considerably more conservative than the urban core of the county and contains low-population rural areas along the eastern edge of the county. Many neighborhoods in the district voted against Gov. Newsom in 2018.
This came as an exclusive data analysis by The Sacramento Bee found that the Sacramento region has the lowest coronavirus infection rate among large U.S. metropolitan areas.
Sacramento flattening the curve
Out of the 50 largest city regions across the country, Sacramento seems to have implemented prevention measures the most effectively.
The highest per capita rates were found in areas along the East Coast and in the Midwest, where population density is usually higher and state-level leadership was more sluggish in responding to the viral outbreak.
The highest rates of infection were found in New York City, New Orleans, Boston and Providence, Rhode Island.
San Antonio; Tampa, Florida; and Portland, Oregon, also boasted some of the lowest infection rates, in that order.
The data is not set in stone, however — areas with more testing likely reflect higher per capita infection rates, a practice that varies by region — but Sacramento’s death rate is also relatively low.
The Sacramento region’s per capita fatality rate due to coronavirus is currently 2.9 per 100,000 people. Lower rates were found in only five other metropolitan areas, all of which were in either Texas, Florida or Utah.
Coronavirus by the numbers
The coronavirus has infected 3.3 million worldwide thus far and has killed more than 240,000, according to data provided by Johns Hopkins University. Just over 1 million patients have recovered after being infected with the virus.
About a third of the world’s cases have been in the United States, which has seen 1.1 million of its residents infected with coronavirus. Of those, 65,000 people have died of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by coronavirus. More than 164,000 Americans have recovered from their illness.
The next leading country is Spain, which has seen 213,000 cases and 24,000 fatalities.
New York state, however, has been hit harder than many European nations. More than 312,000 people have been infected, and 24,000 people have been killed by the virus.
California has received 52,000 positive test results for coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins. As of Saturday morning, 2,136 people had died from the virus’ effects. The state currently has more cases than Belgium, but fewer than Canada.
The largest clusters of infection remain in Southern California, led by Los Angeles County, which has seen 1,174 deaths thus far.
Sacramento County health officials were reporting 1,107 cases of coronavirus and 42 deaths as of Saturday morning.
Yolo County reported 171 cases and 16 deaths, while Placer County reported 159 cases and eight deaths and El Dorado County reported 47 cases and no deaths.
Breaking down the numbers
Data maintained by The Sacramento Bee has been tracking how effectively and to what extent the greater Sacramento area has been flattening the curve of infection since April 1.
At that time, the region — which comprises Sacramento, Yolo, Placer and El Dorado counties — had reported 438 cases of coronavirus and 12 deaths. As of Saturday, those numbers had increased to 1,484 cases and 66 deaths.
The highest percent increase in new cases within the four-county region was in Yolo County, largely owing to a Woodland skilled nursing facility that saw a fierce outbreak last month.
That leaves the region with doubling rates — the amount of time it takes for the number of cases to double — that vary significantly.
Given current growth rates, Sacramento County’s cases double every 69 days, while Yolo County’s double every 77 days, Placer County’s double every 41 days and El Dorado County’s double every 45 days.
However, the region’s infection increases have been consistently shrinking over time. Day-over-day increases have come to hover around 1 percent for about a week, that’s half the daily increase percentage that was seen in the middle of April.
The last day that saw a daily infection growth of more than 2 percent for the four-county region was April 24, with a rate of 2.87 percent, inching up from 1,318 cases to 1,357.
But data from early to mid-April tells a very different story, when daily growth rates at or near 10 percent were not uncommon.
Since last Saturday, only four new deaths have been reported across the four-county region, resulting in a week-over-week fatality growth rate of 6 percent. This compares very favorably with early March, when weekly fatality growth rates reached 60 percent.
Capitol protest ends in arrests
As the coronavirus continues to keep the economy at a standstill, Californians voiced their angst against government response to the measures — but were eventually shut down.
During a protest against California’s stay-at-home measures at the state Capitol, the California Highway Patrol arrested 32 people.
The CHP refused to grant the protest a permit, citing health and safety codes which were later used to justify the arrests.
“The majority of the demonstrators were not wearing face masks or physically distancing and at one point a group of them locked hands,” the CHP said in a news release. “In so doing, they were jeopardizing the health and safety of themselves as well as our officers and onlookers during this ongoing COVID -19 pandemic.”
The four-hour rally began at 9 a.m. and began with protesters driving around the Capitol honking horns and waving American flags — both contemporary and antiquated, drawing parallels to the Revolutionary War.
Some protesters displayed signs that claimed that pandemic was a government hoax, while others sold merchandise bearing the branding of President Donald Trump.
The protests swelled to about 1,000 people, and CHP began attempts to break it up when protesters started gathering on the west steps of the Capitol.
Officers in riot gear formed a defensive perimeter and, after struggling with the protesters and making arrests, pushed them back from the grounds.
“We are 100 percent willing and able to go back to work with precautions and with greater restrictions, but we need to go back to work,” Jennifer Erin Freitas, a nurse and aesthetician, told The Sacramento Bee. “Our government is killing our economy.”
Similar protests were seen in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Huntington Beach and San Diego on Friday.
Although a similar protest was granted a permit to occur at the Capitol on April 20, the CHP said it would stop issuing permits for large gatherings shortly afterward.
Yuba and Sutter counties begin to reopen
Yuba and Sutter counties’ joint chief health officer issued new coronavirus directives on Friday that will allow some businesses to reopen in the rural areas north of Sacramento.
The orders, which will take effect Monday, mean that a number of businesses, including restaurants, can reopen, although county residents must still wear face coverings in public to reduce the possibility of transmission.
The businesses — which include restaurants, retail outlets, shopping malls, construction, real estate, agriculture, gyms, hair and nail salons, barbershops, spas, massage therapy centers and tattoo parlors — have been determined to present a low to medium risk of contact, according to health officials.
County officials were quick to point out that residents and businesses are still subject to California’s statewide stay-at-home order, but offered no substantive advice on how to navigate reopening under such circumstances.
“The intent of the order is to comply with both the Governor’s order and President Trump’s ‘Opening up America Again’ guidelines,” health chief Dr. Phuong Luu said in a statement. “The purpose is to continue to mitigate the spread of the virus to the greatest extent possible while addressing the need to gradually reopen the economy in order to ensure vital services are resumed in a safe manner.”
As of Thursday afternoon, there were 48 confirmed COVID-19 cases reported for Yuba and Sutter counties, plus three deaths.
What is COVID-19? How is the coronavirus spread?
Coronavirus is spread through contact between people within 6 feet of each other, especially through coughing and sneezing that expels respiratory droplets that land in the mouths or noses of people nearby. The CDC says it’s possible to catch the disease COVID-19 by touching something that has the virus on it, and then touching your own face, “but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
Symptoms of the virus that causes COVID-19 include fever, cough and shortness of breath, which may occur two days to two weeks after exposure. Most develop only mild symptoms, but some people develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal. The disease is especially dangerous to the elderly and others with weaker immune systems.
This story was originally published May 2, 2020 at 11:15 AM.
