Coronavirus updates: 1 in 96 Californians infected, hospitalizations at all-time high
More than 413,500 Californians — about 1 in 96 state residents — have been infected by the coronavirus. Of those, 7,870 have died as of Wednesday morning.
And more Californians are currently in the hospital than at any other time during the pandemic: Nearly 7,200 people are in a hospital bed with COVID-19, and about 29% of those hospitalized patients are receiving intensive care, according to state public health data released Wednesday morning.
Hospitals in Southern California and the Central Valley are starting to feel the pressure. Other counties — like Sacramento and Yolo counties, which both have less than 20% of their intensive care beds available as of Wednesday morning — are on high alert.
On Wednesday, California reported a record-setting 12,807 new cases in one day. The growth in infections across the state prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to announce sweeping shutdowns on businesses and schools last week to slow the record-breaking number of infections and hospitalizations. It will be another week, if not longer, before local health officials see whether the closures have the intended effect.
Sacramento County health chief Dr. Peter Beilenson told The Sacramento Bee on Monday business openings don’t appear to have contributed to virus transmission “anywhere near as much” as private gatherings are continuing to do.
Still, those reopenings may have given the false impression that the worst of the pandemic was over, county health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye previously told The Bee.
Local and state officials continue to hammer the importance of mask-wearing and physically distancing from those not in the same household as simple but crucial ways to help slow the spread of the virus.
Over the last two weeks about 7.4% of tests are returning positive. That’s an increase from the 14-day average reported two weeks ago, when about 6.8% of tests were returning positive. The growth means the increase in cases cannot be attributed to simply more testing being conducted.
30 active cases, 1 dead at Sacramento County senior facility
An assisted living facility in south Sacramento County is in the midst of a large coronavirus outbreak, reporting 30 total cases among residents and staff members since late June, and one resident death during the pandemic.
Eighteen elderly residents and 12 employees at Skypark Gardens, located on Sky Parkway just east of Highway 99, had COVID-19 cases that were considered active as of Monday, according to a Tuesday report from the California Department of Social Services.
An additional confirmed case at Skypark Gardens not labeled active is a resident who died of the respiratory disease, the report indicates. At least 26 residents of Sacramento County assisted living homes have died from COVID-19, the state reported this week.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Skypark Gardens administrator Sherry Richardson declined The Bee’s request for comment.
California has too many COVID-19 infections to trace each infection
California has too many COVID-19 cases to realistically investigate and trace each new infection, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said Tuesday.
“At the level of transmission we’re seeing across the state, even a very, very robust contact tracing team in every single county will have a hard time reaching out to every case,” Ghaly said. “No one has anticipated building a program to contact trace the level of cases we’re seeing here.”
The state has trained about 3,600 state workers to help counties with their contact tracing programs, which aim to reach every infected person and their contacts and convince them to quarantine. But the California Department of Public Health said nearly two thirds of those state workers had not yet been assigned to do that work as of last week.
On Tuesday, Ghaly cited bureaucratic hurdles at the county level, including issues related to onboarding the state-trained tracers.
“Despite us having deployable staff at the state level, it takes time for a county to be able to assimilate them into their program,” Ghaly said.
Woodland nursing facility devastated by COVID-19 deaths will close permanently
Stollwood Convalescent Hospital, a Woodland skilled nursing facility devastated by 17 coronavirus deaths in the earlier months of the pandemic, will close permanently this fall.
A message posted Wednesday morning to Stollwood’s website, signed by CEO Sean Beloud, says after a “thorough financial analysis,” the facility “would operate at a significant monthly loss with no assurance the admissions would increase.”
The nursing facility plans to close Sept. 30, a date approved last week by the California Department of Public Health, according to Stollwood’s post.
The horrific coronavirus outbreak at Stollwood was chronicled in depth by The Sacramento Bee earlier this month, including interviews with Beloud as well as family members of elderly residents of the 48-bed facility who passed away from the highly contagious respiratory disease, with most dying in April.
How COVID-19 rise in Sacramento compares to other metro areas
The rate of confirmed COVID-19 cases is rising quickly in the four-county Sacramento region but it remains lower than in most major U.S. metros, according to a Bee analysis of data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
The Sacramento region reported about 6,730 new cases in the four weeks between June 21 and July 19, for a rate of about 294 new cases per 100,000 residents. That’s lower than the rate of 504 new cases per 100,000 residents among all U.S. metro areas with at least 1 million residents.
But it’s also nearly 20 times higher than the rate of new infections reported in the Sacramento region from late April to late May. During that period, the Sacramento metro area had – by far – the lowest infection rate among large metros in the nation.
Miami, Phoenix and Orlando suffered the highest rate of new infections during the past four weeks among the 53 U.S. metros with more 1 million residents. The lowest rate of recent infections was found in Hartford, Conn., Boston and Rochester, N.Y.
Congress split on unemployment benefits for COVID-19 relief
Senate Republicans are seeking to reduce unemployment benefits related to the pandemic that are expiring at the end of this month, so that recipients are not making more money from the benefit than they did while working.
A $600 weekly benefit that Congress included in a stimulus bill earlier this year will expire next week. Lawmakers are racing to pass a new bill that includes emergency relief for businesses and workers before the fast approaching deadline.
Republicans are rallying behind a reduction in the extra federal benefit. One idea under discussion is to lower the $600 weekly benefit to a lower flat amount. Another proposal gaining traction would make it a percentage of what individuals were earning before they were laid off.
In contrast, moderate House Democrats are prepared to unveil a plan later this week that would maintain the $600 payment as long as the presidential emergency is in effect.
Once the emergency ends, the payments would drop to $450 for 13 weeks. Following that, it would drop to $200 or $300, depending on the unemployment rate in a state.
Senate Democrats have a somewhat different approach. Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, would tie benefits directly to a state’s unemployment rate.
If the rate stayed over 11% for three months, the $600 weekly payment would continue. California would easily qualify as its April and May rates were both 16.4% and its June rate was 14.9%. Once the average dropped, so would the payment. For every percentage point decrease, the payment would be reduced by $100 a week.
Latest Sacramento-area numbers: 151 dead, over 12,000 infected
The six-county region of Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, Sutter and Yuba has seen 12,047 cases of the coronavirus as of Wednesday morning. The virus has killed a total of 151 in the region.
Sacramento County reported 285 new cases Wednesday morning, bringing the total number of confirmed coronavirus infections to 7,971 since the pandemic started. The virus has killed 96 people, according to the county’s data dashboard.
There are 213 COVID-19 patients in Sacramento County hospital beds as of Wednesday, an all-time high. Of those, 69 are in intensive care units, according to state public health data. About 15.5% of ICU beds are currently available.
Placer County has reported a total of 1,479 infections in the county, as of Wednesday morning. There are now 49 people hospitalized because the virus, and 12 in intensive care. Another death was reported Tuesday, bringing the death toll in Placer to 12. The vast majority of cases, about 80%, have originated from the south Placer area including Roseville, Rocklin and Lincoln.
Yolo County on Wednesday afternoon reported 26 new COVID-19 cases and one new death due to complications from the respiratory disease. Eleven of the new cases were reported in West Sacramento. The county has reported a total of 1,225 cases and 35 deaths since the pandemic started. Yolo County health officials have changed the way they gather data and post it on its COVID-19 dashboards. Now, staff will post on the dashboards data gathered on the previous day. About 1 in 10 infections have been linked to outbreaks at six long-term care facilities in Yolo County, resulting in 112 people infected and 20 deaths. Stollwood Convalescent Hospital’s outbreak, which was first reported in April, has accounted for 17 deaths.
El Dorado County on Wednesday afternoon reported 22 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths. Ten of the new cases were reported in the Lake Tahoe region, which has nearly half of the county’s 486 cases reported since the start of the pandemic. The county reported its first death due to complications from COVID-19 over the weekend. On Wednesday, the county had 216 active cases. The county had two people hospitalized for COVID-19 treatment on Wednesday; those patients were both in intensive care. The county on Monday reported 49 new cases from over the weekend; and 21 new cases on Tuesday.
Sutter County reported 14 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday night for a total of 567 confirmed infections. Of those, 11 people were in the hospital Wednesday. The county reported 14 new cases on Tuesday, 19 new cases Monday and 19 new cases Sunday. Four people in the county have died since the pandemic started, but no new deaths were reported Wednesday.
Yuba County reported 11 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday night for a total of 319 confirmed infections. Of those, six people were in the hospital Wednesday. The county reported 20 new cases Tuesday, 19 new cases Monday and 13 new cases Sunday. Three people have died in the county since the pandemic started, but no new deaths were reported Wednesday.
In the Yuba-Sutter area, about one-third of the patients testing positive showed no symptoms of the virus, based on local public health data reported.
World numbers: Death toll over 621,000, over 15 million infected
Over 15.1 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 worldwide and more than 621,000 have died as of Wednesday night, according to data maintained by Johns Hopkins University. About one-quarter of each — over 3.96 million infections and more than 143,000 deaths — have come in the United States,.
After the U.S., the coronavirus has hit hardest in Brazil, where over 2.2 million have tested positive and over 82,000 have died. Next by death toll are the United Kingdom at more than 45,500, Mexico at over 41,100, Italy at more than 35,000, France at just over 30,000, and both Spain and India with more than 28,000, according to Johns Hopkins.
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 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 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 people 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 July 22, 2020 at 8:18 AM.