Coronavirus updates: California processing backlog; deadly start to August in Sacramento
The coronavirus is continuing its deadly impact in the Sacramento region, with August already off to a troubling start.
Public health officials, in a Monday update to Sacramento County’s COVID-19 data dashboard, confirmed several more July deaths for nearly 80 in the month, including the deadliest day of the pandemic, and have already confirmed well over a dozen resident deaths from the virus in the first six days of August.
In a breakdown of coronavirus deaths as they’ve occurred by day — as opposed to the dates on which cause of death is made official or is first disclosed publicly — the county now reports a stunning 79 fatalities for the month of July. That’s more than double the previous worst month of April, when 34 died, and over quadruple the 18 observed in each of May and June as the curve of the virus had appeared to be flattening prior to a late June surge.
On July 29, seven Sacramento County residents died of COVID-19, the most since the pandemic started in March, according to local health officials.
The county also confirms multiple coronavirus deaths every day from Aug. 1 to Aug. 6, for a total of 16 in that six-day stretch, the most recent on record. That’s a preliminary total that could grow further, because it can take a week or longer in some cases for authorities to officially determine cause of death.
Sacramento’s count includes deaths “specifically due to COVID-19, as identified from hospital discharge summaries, death notes, and/or death certificates,” according to the county’s online dashboard.
As of a Tuesday update, the county has confirmed 179 COVID-19 deaths, including 120 residents of the city of Sacramento. The remaining 59 come from Sacramento County’s surrounding suburbs and unincorporated territories.
In neighboring Yolo County, at least 44 residents have died of the virus. Half of those, 22, lived in elderly care homes, according to the county’s public health dashboard.
In Placer County, 24 residents have died of COVID-19, with eight of those fatalities reported in the past nine days, including two Tuesday. During its low point of virus activity, Placer went close to a month — from mid-April to mid-May — without reporting any deaths.
And El Dorado County, long faring the best in the greater Sacramento area for coronavirus activity, on Monday reported its second death all-time from COVID-19, this one in a resident of the Placerville area.
Those four counties have combined for just under 17,000 total reported COVID-19 infections, but that metric continues to be problematic as state and local health officials continue sorting out a California-wide data problem that created a backlog of some 295,000 case reports statewide with tests dating back to late July.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a Monday news briefing that the issue has been addressed but that the backlog likely won’t be fully processed until later this week. On cue, Tuesday morning’s update from the state showed 12,500 new cases — close to the most, because of the backed up cases.
State and local death and hospitalization figures were not affected by the glitch, officials said.
The California Department of Public Health now reports over 574,000 total infections statewide with the data issue still making that number an underestimate. The state has recorded 10,468 COVID-19 deaths, adding 109 in Tuesday’s update to the numbers.
Newsom and state officials are cautiously optimistic that the state may again be bending the pandemic’s curve, though, as hospitalization figures have recently declined. The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized statewide has fallen 22% in the last three weeks, now below 5,600 after a peak in July of nearly 7,200 hospitalized with the respiratory disease. ICU patients are down to 1,725, from a peak of more than 2,050, more than a 16% drop.
But Central Valley health facilities continue to be stretched thin with limited intensive care space available, including in Fresno, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Solano and Yolo counties.
Minor booked into juvenile hall tests positive
The department tweeted Tuesday morning that it received confirmation Monday of the positive test, for a juvenile booked “a few days earlier” into the county’s youth detention facility.
“The youth has been isolated and is receiving care,” the tweet said.
$13.5 million contract with local company set to speed up Sacramento testing
A Folsom-based biotech company is expected to be approved Tuesday for a $13.5 million contract to rapidly process about 19,000 diagnostic COVID-19 tests a week.
Sacramento County health chief Dr. Peter Beilenson said StemExpress would process all samples taken at county-run testing sites with a goal of returning results in less than three days. Company founder Cate Dyer said the hope is to get that turnaround time “down to 24 to 48 hours.”
In recent weeks, test result delays statewide have stalled contact tracing efforts to target and isolate people who have the coronavirus.
“The effect of contact tracing is being able to get to people quickly. If not, those are opportunities lost for doing intervention,” Dr. Olivia Kasirye, Sacramento County health officer, previously told The Bee. “If it is beyond the 14 days, there is no point.”
The county Board of Supervisors will review and is expected to approve the contract during its Tuesday meeting.
Two more SacRT bus drivers tests positive for coronavirus
Two more bus drivers with the Sacramento Regional Transit District have contracted COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused the coronavirus. A total of six RT employees, including five bus drivers and one light-rail service worker, have been infected with the virus.
RT officials announced in a statement that they received a written notice Sunday indicating one of its bus drivers, who hasn’t been at work since Friday, has tested positive for COVID-19. RT officials received another written notice Monday indicating that another of its bus drivers, who hasn’t been at work since July 29, also has tested positive.
Both bus drivers were self-isolating and expected to make a full recovery, RT officials said in the statement. They also said all RT employees are required to wear a mask at work and have their temperatures checked before the start of each shift.
SacRT shared the routes and times for the driver who was on duty Friday:
Thursday, Aug. 6:
▪ 7:10 a.m. – 9:57 a.m. Route 11
▪ 2:30 p.m. – 3:11 p.m. Route 134
▪ 3:30 p.m. – 3:35 p.m. Route 161
▪ 4:35 p.m. – 5:25 p.m. Route 109
Friday, Aug. 7:
▪ 7:10 a.m. – 9:57 a.m. Route 11
▪ 2:30 p.m. – 3:11 p.m. Route 134
▪ 3:30 p.m. – 3:35 p.m. Route 161
▪ 4:35 p.m. – 5:25 p.m. Route 109
RT officials have not released information about the routes and bus numbers for the driver who hasn’t been on duty since July 29.
RT officials say the district’s buses and light-rail cars are cleaned and sanitized daily. Riders also are required to wear masks, that includes while waiting at bus stops or light-rail stations.
Majority of federal COVID-19 relief went to sheriff payroll in Sacramento County
County government documents show that the bulk of $181 million that Sacramento County has received as part of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES) signed in March has gone to paying salaries and benefits for public safety officers, mainly at the Sheriff’s Office.
A staff report shows the county has spent $148 million of that federal money in recent months, with over $104 million going toward Sheriff’s Office payroll, another $21.5 million to probation officers and $1.8 million to park rangers.
A much smaller proportion, less than 3% of the federal money, went directly toward public health and medical expenses. Just $10,000 went toward contact tracing, which local and state health officials have for weeks pointed to as a key component in mitigating virus spread and preventing outbreaks by telling those exposed to positive cases to self-isolate.
CARES Act funding is not supposed to be used to backfill revenue losses or normal payroll costs in general, but guidelines issued by the U.S. Treasury let local governments use it to cover salaries and benefits of public safety and health workers who are “substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to” the pandemic. The Treasury also allows local governments to assume all public health, law enforcement and public safety worker expenses are included in that definition, unless local leadership decides otherwise.
Sacramento County Chief Fiscal Officer Britt Ferguson told The Bee that using CARES Act funding for Sheriff’s Office, probation officials and park rangers for the 2019-20 fiscal year let the county avoid “massive budget cuts,” which he said was necessary to address an estimated $170 million in reduced revenue, such as loss of sales tax resulting from the coronavirus shutdown.
Of the remaining $33 million in federal funding to be spent in the current fiscal year, Ferguson said the county is putting about $14.3 million toward the public health department’s testing and contact tracing efforts, while the rest will continue to go to payroll for county employees in certain departments.
Latest Sacramento-area numbers: 261 dead
The six-county region of Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, Sutter and Yuba counties has reported 261 combined coronavirus deaths and nearly 19,000 confirmed cases.
Those counties are still in the process of adding cases from the statewide backlog, so infection totals are likely underestimates, but their death figures are considered accurate.
State data show 265 COVID-19 patients in Sacramento County hospitals, with that figure having plateaued for a little more than a week after a slight drop from its peak of 281 on July 30. ICU cases are down to 81, from a high of 91, and 93 more ICU beds remain available countywide.
Sacramento County has now tallied 12,274 confirmed infections, disclosing 1,245 new cases between Friday and Monday’s updates following no weekend data reporting, plus another 234 Tuesday. At least 179 residents have died.
Placer County has reported 2,377 cases and 24 deaths, disclosing two additional deaths and 58 cases Tuesday morning as it continues to address the backlog. The county reported one death per day last Monday through Thursday, one over the weekend and another Monday for eight in the last nine days. Sixty-two people are being treated for COVID-19 at Placer County hospitals, with 11 in the ICU due to the disease, the county says.
Yolo County on Tuesday afternoon reported 65 new COVID-19 cases and one new death from the virus. The county reported a record-high 75 new cases Monday due to a backlog, and it has now reported a total of 1,898 cases and 45 deaths. The county reported one death each on Friday and Sunday. Eight infected people in the county were hospitalized Tuesday; five of them in intensive care, according to state data.
El Dorado County reported its second death from COVID-19 on Monday. In its daily coronavirus update, county spokeswoman Carla Hass said the man was between the ages of 50 and 64 and lived in the Placerville area. No other details were released, including when the man died.
The county had gone 24 days between Monday’s reported fatality and the first on July 18 of an elderly man from the Lake Tahoe area. Up to that point, El Dorado had been by far California’s most populous state without a confirmed COVID-19 death, at roughly 200,000 residents.
County health officials on Tuesday reported 30 new COVID-19 cases, including 10 in the South Lake Tahoe area. The county has reported a total of 785 cases and two deaths. Four people in the county were hospitalized Tuesday; all of them in intensive care. The county added 26 new cases to its total on Monday. The county remains the capital region’s only one not been placed onto the state’s coronavirus watchlist, reflecting its relatively low case total; but changes to the watchlist have been frozen until the backlog issue is fully resolved.
In Sutter County, 996 cases and seven deaths have been reported. Sutter hospitals are currently caring for 12 with the virus, with six in the ICU.
Yuba County has reported 666 cases and four deaths. Fourteen people in Yuba County were hospitalized as of Monday, including three in intensive care.
World numbers: Over 20 million infected, nearly 740,000 dead
A map and data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows the global coronavirus infection total surpassed 20 million on Monday, with the United States passing 5 million cases over the weekend.
The U.S. now accounts for over 164,000 of the 738,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths worldwide as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins. Brazil is next in terms of death toll, recently surpassing 101,000. After that are Mexico at 53,000 dead, the United Kingdom at nearly 47,000, India at more than 45,000, previous European epicenter Italy at 35,000, France at just over 30,000, Spain at about 28,500 and 21,000 in Peru.
The long list of countries with five-digit death tolls continues with 18,800 dead in Iran, over 15,000 in Russia, more than 13,000 in Colombia, and just over 10,000 in each of South Africa and Chile.
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 August 11, 2020 at 8:20 AM.
