Coronavirus updates: 270 dead in Sacramento area; California researchers develop nasal spray
As local and health officials in California continue to sort through tens of thousands of COVID-19 disease reports, addressing a backlog created by a statewide data issue that emerged late last month, the state is still working to understand how coronavirus activity has been trending in recent weeks.
It’s been just under a month since Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a re-tightening of restrictions on businesses, places of worship and other gathering places throughout California in response to a surge of pandemic activity that began around mid-June. He did so July 13, expanding on other shutdown orders he issued July 1 pertaining to counties on the state health department’s watchlist.
Given the incubation period for the virus and the time it takes to process tests and report data, the period from late July to early August — two weeks to three weeks after July 13 — would have been a critical moment to examine whether new infection totals across the state were declining following the renewed shutdowns.
New case numbers appeared to be dropping during that window. But as local and state health authorities began to disclose early last week, a serious data error involving CalREDIE, the system labs throughout California use to report disease information to the state and to local health offices, led to an underreporting of cases.
Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly says the glitch resulted in a backlog of about 295,000 COVID-19 case reports dating back to July 25. Positive results within that backlog are still in the process of being reported by the state and by individual counties this week.
After days of reporting new infection totals a few thousand cases lower than had been typical in late July, with California Department of Public Health-maintained data marred by undercounts showing Aug. 2-5 as having the four lowest daily increases since July 4, the state added exactly 12,500 cases Tuesday and over 11,600 more Wednesday to boost California’s all-time tally past 586,000 infections.
Newsom in an afternoon news conference said Wednesday’s infection total was made up of about 6,200 cases from the backlog and a little over 5,400 from the normal reporting period. He said the latter number is “still too high but a lot lower than we’ve seen.”
Ghaly announced last Friday that the state will build a new system separate from CalREDIE for handling COVID-19 data, which he suggested was overwhelmed by the massive volume introduced by a pandemic.
Newsom, Ghaly and the state are confident, though, that hospitalization metrics — which are reported through a system separate from CalREDIE — remain accurate and point to a true decline, and potential proof that the state really is once again bending the pandemic’s growth curve.
The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized statewide has fallen by nearly 25% in about three weeks, below 5,500 as of Wednesday after a peak in July of nearly 7,200 hospitalized with the respiratory disease. ICU patients are down to 1,699, from a peak of over 2,050, more than a 17% drop. However, some parts of California, including the Central Valley, remain harder hit by the pandemic, with their intensive care units closer to reaching max capacity amid coronavirus surges.
California’s coronavirus death toll, also not impacted by the data issue, has continued to climb, reaching 10,648 with 180 reported Wednesday.
Employee death, inmate outbreak at Folsom State Prison
State prison officials recently reported 56 active inmate infections at Folsom State Prison, all confirmed within the past two weeks, according to a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation COVID-19 data dashboard.
The California Prison Industry Authority also confirmed to The Bee Wednesday that an employee of CalPIA who worked at the prison has died “from potential complications related to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).”
CalPIA is a semiautonomous state agency under the umbrella of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that trains inmates to join the workforce upon release.
Walker’s memo does not identify the employee or his specific role, but says he worked for CalPIA for more than five years.
The death appears to be the 10th reported by the state among prison workers. The prior nine came across nine other state prisons.
Officials are boosting isolation and quarantine efforts and sending medical strike team to Folsom State Prison in response to the inmate outbreak. Prisons remain among California’s hardest-hit coronavirus hotspots amid the pandemic.
UCSF researchers hopeful nasal spray could bridge gap to vaccine
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, one of the nation’s top-ranked medical research institutions, published information Tuesday about a nasal spray they’re developing that appears to be showing strong potential in helping prevent users from contracting COVID-19.
The UCSF team is referring to the spray as AeroNabs, an antiviral that co-inventor Peter Walter said “could serve as an important stopgap until vaccines provide a more permanent solution to COVID-19.” He also described the spray as “far more effective than wearable forms of personal protective equipment,” such as masks or face shields.
A research team made up of biochemistry and biophysics professor Walter, along with pharmaceutical chemistry assistant professor Dr. Aashish Manglik, UCSF graduate student Michael Schoof and others has created a synthetic molecule that their research paper says can restrain the virus that allows the coronavirus, known in the scientific community as SARS-CoV-2, from latching onto and infecting cells in humans.
Manglik and Walter say they were inspired by immune proteins called nanobodies that naturally occur in some animals, including llamas and camels.
Researchers at Manglik’s lab identified 21 such nanobodies that showed potential to shut down the process through which the novel coronavirus’ spike proteins latch onto human cell receptors.
Combining two or three of these nanobodies “was so effective that it exceeded our ability to measure its potency,” Walter said.
The hope is that AeroNabs will use a combination of these nanobodies to create a safe, efficient and affordable nasal spray treatment that can be widely distributed.
The team didn’t provide a timeline, but Manglik said researchers hope to begin human trials soon and that they’re in discussions to manufacture and distribute the nasal spray following clinical testing. The UCSF researchers said that if all goes as anticipated, AeroNabs could be widely available, inexpensive and available over-the-counter.
Deaths mounting in greater Sacramento area
The six-county region of Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, Sutter and Yuba counties has reported 270 combined coronavirus deaths and just over 19,000 confirmed cases.
Sacramento County has now tallied 12,478 confirmed infections, disclosing 234 cases Tuesday and another 204 on Wednesday.
At least 186 residents have died, the county reports, with at least 80 deaths occurring in July and 18 over the first eight days of August, the most recent on record. The death toll is composed of 124 deaths in residents of the city of Sacramento, 11 in Elk Grove, 10 in Citrus Heights, seven in Rancho Cordova, six in Galt, four in Folsom and 24 in unincorporated territories.
State data show 260 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 83 from a high of 91, and 94 more ICU beds remain available countywide.
Placer County has reported 2,413 cases and 26 deaths, disclosing two new deaths on both Tuesday and Wednesday. The county has reported 10 deaths in 10 days after the first 16 deaths came over nearly five months. Placer added 36 cases to its count Wednesday — all of them in south part of the county, which includes Lincoln, Roseville, Rocklin, Granite Bay and Loomis.
The county says 61 patients in Placer County hospitals are being treated for COVID-19, 13 of whom are in the ICU.
Yolo County on Wednesday reported 20 new COVID-19 cases with no new deaths 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 1,918 cases and 45 deaths. The county reported one death each on Friday and Sunday. Nine infected people in the county were hospitalized Wednesday, three of them in intensive care, according to state data. The county has only five ICU beds available.
El Dorado County added 30 new cases Tuesday and eight more Wednesday bringing the all-time total to 793. The county reported its second death from COVID-19 on Monday.
The county now has two COVID-19 patients in its hospitals, both of them in the ICU. The county remains the capital region’s only one not placed onto the state’s coronavirus watchlist, reflecting its relatively low case total, but changes to the watchlist have been frozen until the state’s backlog issue is fully resolved.
In Sutter County, 1,019 cases and seven deaths have been reported. Sutter hospitals are currently caring for 15 with the virus, with six in the ICU.
Yuba County has reported 678 cases and four deaths. Seventeen people in Yuba County were hospitalized as of Tuesday evening, including three in intensive care.
Hairstylists protest outside capitol in California
About 250 hairstylists, nearly all of them wearing masks, gathered on the south side of the state Capitol building Tuesday to protest the closures of hair salons, barbershops and nail salons during the pandemic. Many of them wore masks as they trimmed hair on mannequins’ heads.
All of those business types were allowed to reopen with modifications for a few weeks starting in June, before resurgent coronavirus numbers led Newsom to re-impose shutdowns on personal care services for counties on the watchlist. That list as of Wednesday continues to include 38 of the state’s 58 counties making up 97% of California’s total population.
Newsom and the state clarified shortly after the July 13 shutdown that some of those businesses could continue operations outdoors, but those protesting Tuesday argued that’s not enough. The rally called for the state’s health orders to reclassify the beauty industry as essential, allowing them to operate with limited capacity and increased health precautions indoors.
Beauty workers emphasized that working outdoors can be unsanitary or impractical, with hair coloring and other services critical to their businesses unable to be safely performed outside.
Toni Navarro and Stephanie San Jose, both of whom work at Hair Gone Wild in Sacramento, said Tuesday that they tried to cut hair outside, but it didn’t work, especially in the summer heat.
“It was too unsanitary, too sweaty, too hot. Clients were uncomfortable,” Navarro said.
World numbers: Global death toll continues toward 750,000
More than 20.4 million lab-confirmed cases of the coronavirus have been reported worldwide, with the United States leading the globe with over 5.18 million of them, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. now accounts for over 165,000 of the 745,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths worldwide as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins. Brazil is next in terms of death toll, recently surpassing 103,000. After that are Mexico at nearly 54,000, the United Kingdom at nearly 47,000, India at more than 46,000, previous European epicenter Italy at 35,000, France at just over 30,000, Spain at just over 28,500 and 21,500 in Peru.
The long list of countries with five-digit death tolls continues with nearly 19,000 dead in Iran, over 15,000 in Russia, more than 13,000 in Colombia, just over 11,000 in South Africa and more than 10,000 in Chile. Belgium is just shy of 10,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins, and Germany and Canada have each recorded more than 9,000 fatalities.
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 12, 2020 at 8:35 AM.
