Sacramento County coronavirus surge continues. But restaurants, stores will remain open
The flood of new confirmed coronavirus cases continued Friday in Sacramento County, with health officials reporting a record-high 154 new infections in the morning’s update, continuing a worrisome trend of increased cases since mid-May.
The ongoing surge has seen the county’s all-time infection total shoot up to 2,666, according to the public health department’s online data dashboard.
The county now reports 61 hospital patients with confirmed cases of the respiratory disease, 14 of whom are in the intensive care unit.
New state data, however, indicates the number of patients in Sacramento County hospitals has in fact hit 73, 10 times the number it was a little over one month ago. On May 21, the county’s hospitals reported COVID-19 patient levels had dropped to just seven.
The increase in infections and in hospitalizations, both locally and statewide, come as the state and county reopen their economies — from shopping malls to barber shops and tattoo parlors.
Sacramento County health chief Dr. Peter Beilenson said the recent spikes appear to be more the result of family in-home gatherings in recent weeks, such as for birthday and graduation parties. That includes a number of outbreaks among Latino families.
On the whole, Beilenson said, local businesses, such as restaurants, stores and hair salons, appear to be doing a good job with coronavirus safety protocols, focused on wearing masks and keep people 6 feet apart.
Given that, he said he is not, at this point, considering shutting down businesses or backing down on the recent reopenings.
“In general, businesses are behaving quite well,” he said. “I don’t see (us) really going backward at this point.”
Beilenson said he does have concerns however about what may happen if more people gather in close quarters in bars. One midtown bar just closed because a customer tested positive.
COVID-19 spike among Latinos
County and state officials say they have taken note of increased infections among Latinos in recent weeks. Part of that may be due to increased access to testing among ethnic and lower-income groups, both locally and statewide. More than 30 percent of infections in Sacramento are among Latino residents; that’s a sharp increase in recent weeks.
Sacramento County officials earlier this week said they are increasing their efforts to reach out to ethnic communities, many with members who do not speak English, to offer safety advice.
Despite the increase in cases in the last few weeks, the death numbers in Sacramento County have not reported a COVID-19 fatality since June 17. But Gov. Gavin Newsom and local officials said that could change soon, as it takes time for the surge in new cases to translate to an increase in deaths.
“In the next week or two you will start to see that tragically in the number of lives lost,” Newsom said.
He used that to extend a plea Friday for people, notably younger people to take more responsibility in acting safely. “Even if you don’t feel sick, you may be transmitting this disease. Please, please, practice common sense, common decency.”
Sacramento’s hospitalization figure in particular drew concern from the state, which on Thursday added the county back onto its list of those it is watching due to elevated coronavirus activity. The state automatically adds counties to this fluctuating list when they exceed certain thresholds relating to hospitalization rates, hospital capacity, percentage of positive tests or new cases.
“Drivers of (increased hospitalization) include community transmission due to holiday gatherings amongst large families,” the state watch list’s write-up for Sacramento County begins. “Key action steps to address concerns include (1) increase of public messaging on the importance of social distancing, not gathering, and mandate face covering, (2) more testing sites and education outreach in communities where positive cases are high, and (3) targeted educational outreach to ethnic communities.”
Fifteen of California’s 58 counties, mainly in Southern California, the Central Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area, were on the state health department’s watch list as of Friday.
Sacramento County’s updated data, which breaks down cases by “episode date” — the earliest known date to which an infection can be officially confirmed, by either positive testing, hospitalization or death — now shows that the four-day window of June 16-19 saw 384 new coronavirus infections emerge. That’s more than double the previous biggest four-day spike, when 174 new cases came in June 8 to 11, and it’s 17 times more than the quietest period of the pandemic post-stay-at-home order, when only 22 cases came in May 1 to 4.
The city of Sacramento saw 110 new infections. There were 19 new cases reported in Elk Grove and 17 in unincorporated areas of Sacramento County.
Latest in capital region: 100 total deaths across four-county area
Placer County health officials report a total of 593 people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 11 of them have died, with figures last updated Friday morning. The county reported one new fatality and 14 new infections Friday, after reporting 23 new infections Thursday and 22 Wednesday. Seven people are hospitalized, three of them in the ICU.
Placer reported two deaths this week, one Friday and one Monday. Prior to that, the county hadn’t reported a coronavirus fatality since May 22.
For the fourth consecutive day, Yolo County reported single-day records in cases, but no deaths, on Thursday. The 30 confirmed infections on Friday outmatched the 22 reported the day before. Those figures surpassed the 20 cases reported Wednesday and 19 cases Tuesday. Yolo County’s previous high was 17 confirmations Monday and April 6.
A total of 438 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 Thursday reported five new COVID-19 cases, bringing its total to 158 cases and no deaths related to the virus. Slightly more than half those cases, 80, stem from the Lake Tahoe area. The county on Monday reported 15 new cases from over the weekend and three new cases on Wednesday.
Just outside of the four-county capital region, Sutter County health officials reported 13 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday for a total of 140 people infected and three dead from the virus. Sutter County reported six new cases on Monday, seven new cases on Tuesday and two new cases on Wednesday.
Yuba County reported two new COVID-19 cases Thursday and has a total of 51 infections and one person dead from the virus. Yuba County reported six new cases on Wednesday. While the numbers in these counties remain small, infection rates have been increasing.
This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 11:56 AM.
