Sacramento County reports 131 new coronavirus cases, highest one-day increase by far
Coronavirus case totals continue to spike dramatically across California and in Sacramento County, with the county shattering its previous single-day record as it reported more than 130 new infections Tuesday.
The county added 131 more lab-confirmed cases to the running tally, continuing a trend local health leaders said was concerning a day earlier. That figure blows past the previous high of 93 new cases reported Saturday.
Sacramento County has now reported 2,374 total cases of COVID-19, and over 390 of them have been disclosed by the county since Saturday. That’s more than 16 percent of the all-time infection total, which dates back to February. More than 5 percent came Tuesday alone.
The county reports 66 COVID-19 fatalities, with none reported since last Wednesday.
According to a state data dashboard updated Tuesday, Sacramento had 46 patients hospitalized with confirmed cases of COVID-19 both Sunday and Monday, up from 28 as of June 13 and matching the highest rate in the county since April 27. Twenty-two patients were in intensive care units Sunday and 19 on Monday, also highs for the county since late April.
New cases also appear to be outpacing recoveries. Sacramento County’s public health dashboard for COVID-19 now estimates 1,482 “likely recovered” cases. Subtracting fatalities, that suggests about 826 infections could be considered active; the same figure was at just over 500 late last week.
The state Department of Public Health on Tuesday said California recorded yet another single-day high of 5,019 new cases, for a total of more than 183,000 since the pandemic started. Another 65 deaths were added to the state’s death toll, with at least 5,580 fatalities reported so far across California.
The state’s hospitalization and ICU figures are also rapidly rising. There are now 3,868 hospitalized patients statewide, a 4.5 percent increase from Monday’s count and a 25 percent increase since June 13, when just under 3,100 were in hospital beds. Of those, 1,225 patients are in ICUs, the second-most in any day of the pandemic (1,241 were in the ICU on April 20, according to the state). ICU patients have risen 16 percent since June 14.
Sacramento County health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye and health director Dr. Peter Beilenson on Monday told The Sacramento Bee that contact tracing investigations link the recent surge largely to gatherings among friends and extended family members — at events like birthday or graduation parties — where attendees have come in close contact while mostly ignoring social distancing protocols or the now-mandatory mask requirement.
Those gatherings remain prohibited under the state and county health orders, but enforcing that part of the order with respect to private events inside people’s homes is essentially impossible.
Beilenson said the county needs to send a more blunt and direct message:
“These gatherings absolutely must not occur. People are spreading the disease among family members.”
County officials are reassessing their community outreach efforts, which formerly focused on group care facilities that were the epicenter of the pandemic locally and statewide during its early weeks, to focus on more education for the general public.
Kasirye said the working theory is some people are finally giving up on social distancing measures that many have adhered to since March. Others have mistakenly assumed the worst of the pandemic is over, given that the government has let shopping malls, farmers markets and other public places reopen.
“We have a lot of concern about individuals gathering in homes,” she said. “One problem is it is hard to do social distancing and people are not careful about wearing face coverings.”
The county is also working to double its contact tracing staff by the end of this week, from 30 to 60 employees, she said.
Health officials are increasing testing capacity, but Sacramento County data show the disease is also spreading to a higher percentage of people. During the first week of June, only 1.65 percent of people tested in Sacramento County for the virus had an active infection. As of Monday, that percentage had increased to 2.3 percent.
Will businesses shut down again?
Sacramento County health officials, referencing the fact that contact tracers have linked most of the local coronavirus activities to private gatherings rather than reopened bars or other businesses, said they do not currently plan to roll back any of the Phase 2 or Phase 3 openings that have been implemented over the past several weeks.
But California Gov. Gavin Newsom, during a COVID-19 news briefing Monday afternoon, said a big enough spike in cases could indeed force another closure of the state’s economy.
“We don’t intend to do that or want to do that, but we are prepared to do that if we must,” he said.
Newsom and the state health department last Thursday made it mandatory statewide to wear masks in most indoor, public situations.
The governor said that the state has seen a 16 percent increase in hospitalizations and an 11 percent spike in ICU cases over the past two weeks as of Monday. Hospital bed capacity remains stable, he said.
“We are not out of the first wave of the virus.”
Latest numbers for rest of Sacramento area
Placer County health officials report a total of 534 people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 10 of them have died, with figures last updated Tuesday. The county reported 15 new cases and its first coronavirus death since May 22 in Tuesday’s update.
Yolo County reported 19 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday afternoon, surpassing its highest daily case increase of 17 cases reported on Monday and April 6. West Sacramento reported nine of the new cases Tuesday, and five were reported in Woodland. A total of 366 coronavirus infections have been confirmed in the county and 24 people have died. Of those deaths, 17 have been connected to an outbreak at Stollwood Convalescent Hospital in Woodland.
El Dorado County on Tuesday afternoon reported five new COVID-19 cases, bringing its total to 150 cases and no deaths related to the virus. One patient infected with the virus was being treated in an intensive care unit on Tuesday, the county reported. The county on Monday reported 15 new cases from over the weekend.
Just outside of the four-county capital region, Sutter County health officials reported seven new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday for a total of 125 infections and three deaths from the virus. On Monday, Sutter County reported six new COVID-19 cases. Yuba County did not report any new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday. Yuba County reported one new case Monday and has a total of 43 infections and one dead from the virus. While the numbers in these counties remain small, infection rates have been increasing.
U.S. and world totals rising
Nationwide, the U.S. reports more than 121,000 of the world’s nearly 475,000 coronavirus fatalities as of Tuesday evening, according to data maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The United States accounted for more than 2.34 million of the world’s 9.18 million lab-confirmed cases.
This story was originally published June 23, 2020 at 10:56 AM.
