Coronavirus updates: US surpasses 70,000 deaths, including 14 at Woodland facility
California will be at least partially transitioning to a phase in the reopening process by the end of this week.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday that a few different types of retail businesses — such as bookstores, sporting goods stores and florists — may be allowed to reopen for curbside-pickup only starting Friday, if certain criteria are met by Thursday.
By then, those nonessential businesses will have been shuttered for seven full weeks since Newsom issued his stay-at-home order March 19 in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The shutdown continues to prevent the state’s roughly 40 million residents from leaving home for any purpose not deemed essential.
The governor also said individual counties may begin developing their own “self-certified” reopening plans, but the state will intervene if those counties see a spike in cases. Counties that have plans approved by their own public health officials may soon be allowed to move more quickly within Stage 2 of the reopening plan, which includes the above businesses plus others considered “low risk” for virus spread, such as office spaces, restaurants and shopping malls.
All of those businesses, Newsom reiterated, will need to modify their procedures. Newsom has described a gradual, four-stage reopening of California’s economy that he says will be governed by science rather than political pressure.
The pandemic continues to rage, having infected more than 3.6 million people globally. COVID-19, the disease caused by the highly contagious virus, has killed more than 256,000 worldwide and over 70,000 in the United States, according to data maintained by Johns Hopkins University.
Compared with a state like New York, where more than 25,000 have died, California’s death toll remains modest at over 2,300, according to a Bee survey count of counties’ public health departments.
More than half of California’s deaths have come in Los Angeles County, which further prompted calls last week from local leaders in rural parts of the state for Newsom to allow counties greater autonomy in reopening.
Latest in Sacramento area: 14 dead at Stollwood in Woodland
Seven new deaths were reported Monday in the four-county Sacramento region — five in Sacramento County and two in Yolo County.
Both of Yolo’s newly reported deaths came at Stollwood Convalescent Hospital, a skilled nursing facility within the St. John’s Retirement Village complex in Woodland, which has been the site of the county’s first and so far only deadly COVID-19 outbreak.
The deaths included an employee who died last week, St. John’s confirmed in an update posted to its website.
Since its outbreak was first reported in early April, a total of at least 13 residents and one staff member have died, among 33 residents and 34 staff members who have tested positive, according to data reported Tuesday on an online dashboard by the county’s public health department. According to the public health dashboard and St. John’s, the infection total had stabilized, with no new cases in 14 days as of Monday.
The four counties have seen a combined total of 74 COVID-19 fatalities among just over 1,500 confirmed positive cases.
Sacramento County health officials have reported 1,133 cases of coronavirus and 47 deaths, last updated 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. Just six additional cases were reported between Monday and Tuesday’s updates. Of the fatalities, 24 have come in the city of Sacramento, five in Citrus Heights, three in Elk Grove, three in Rancho Cordova, two in Folsom and 10 in unincorporated parts of the county.
Yolo County’s death toll remained at 19 with Tuesday’s update. Across the county, there was one new reported case on Tuesday that increased the total to 172 people who have been infected. It appears there was one new reported case among the residents at Stollwood, which now has a total of 67 people – 33 residents and 34 staff — have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the county’s public health website.
Placer County has confirmed 162 cases and eight deaths, last updated Tuesday morning. The infection total increased by one over the previous update, and no new fatalities have been reported since April 15.
El Dorado County has confirmed 53 COVID-19 cases and has not reported any deaths related to the coronavirus as of Tuesday afternoon. On Monday afternoon, the county reported six more cases.
Will Sacramento County be one of first to reopen?
Sacramento County’s health director says he is working on a plan to reopen some businesses faster than elsewhere in the state.
Dr. Peter Beilenson said his team is developing a list of businesses — including restaurants — that it believes it can announce prospective reopening dates as early as next week.
Beilenson declined to discuss specifics about that list, but said he may be ready to unveil a plan next week. In-restaurant dining likely will be included, with notable restrictions that would include disposable menus, staff in masks, a reduced number of tables to enable social distancing and some form of vetting of diners to make sure they are not sick.
Dr. Sonia Angell, director of the state Department of Public Health, said during Monday’s coronavirus briefing that counties planning to lift restrictions ahead of the state doing so must first “attest” to both the public and to the state in publicly viewable documents that they have a plan to protect poorer and older residents. They must also have sufficient surge capacity in their hospitals if infections begin to rise, she said.
Sacramento County appears to be well-positioned within those criteria. A Sacramento Bee analysis last week found that the Sacramento metropolitan region had the lowest coronavirus case rate in the country as of Friday among metro areas with more than 1 million people.
“This certification I presume will be basically: hospitalizations, ICU cases, deaths, the number of (county) contact tracers,” Beilenson said. “I would imagine the county will meet those guidelines.“
Mayor Steinberg wants mask requirement in Sacramento
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg in a Facebook live video Monday said he is “going to call on our county health officials to change that mask order, the mask issue, from voluntary to mandatory.”
So far in Sacramento County, face coverings have been recommended but not required. The mayor said he believes masks should be mandated once the stay-at-home order is loosened, whether that’s this week, next week or later.
“The mask issue has been voluntary in Sacramento County and I understand that,” Steinberg said Monday. “But as we transition and as we open back up, it is going to be even more important that when we are out in public that we have that extra layer of protection, not just for ourselves but for each other, and wear masks.”
Face coverings are already mandatory in neighboring Yolo County while working at an essential job or out in public, except when exercising.
‘Army’ of tracers: What is contact tracing?
Newsom, Angell and Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly have in recent news briefings referenced the state’s need for widespread contact tracing in tandem with its increase in diagnostic testing.
The governor has said that the state needs an “army,” setting an initial workforce goal of 10,000 trackers or “tracers.” That workforce will, at least in part, be made up of retrained state workers. Once the goal of 10,000 is hit, Angell said, the goal will be to find another 10,000.
What is contact tracing? The idea is that once positive cases are identified, contact tracers would work to help isolate these individuals and contact anyone they may have potentially infected, notifying them of the potential exposure.
“Our foundation in terms of testing doesn’t mean much unless you can begin protocols to track and trace,” Newsom said two weeks ago.
Newsom says the state has experience tracking during public health emergencies like waves of STD infections, but nothing of this magnitude.
Ghaly said Monday that the state has surveyed individual counties about their own ability to perform contact tracing, and that the survey results will be released in the near future.
Angell and Newsom suggested counties’ reopening plans will need to include sufficient staffing of contact tracers.
For Sacramento County, the health department started with six contact tracers and has been hiring and training in hopes of bringing the number soon to 30, according to Beilenson, who said he is unsure whether 30 is enough for a county with roughly 1.5 million residents.
World numbers: 256,000 dead among 3.6 million cases
More than 3.6 million people have been confirmed positive for COVID-19, according to the Johns Hopkins data map. Of those, more than 256,000 have died.
The U.S. accounts for more than 1.2 million reported infections and over 70,000 deaths, more than one-quarter of the worldwide total for each figure. New York state has recorded 25,000 deaths as of Tuesday afternoon, followed by New Jersey at over 8,000, then Michigan and Massachusetts, each with over 4,000 reported fatalities.
More than 29,000 people have died in each of Italy and the United Kingdom. Roughly 25,000 have died in Spain and France. The Netherlands, Iran, Germany, Brazil and Belgium have all reported between about 5,000 and 8,000 coronavirus deaths. China, the original epicenter for the virus, has officially reported just over 4,600 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 5, 2020 at 7:49 AM.
