Coronavirus updates: City of Sacramento hits 10,000 COVID-19 cases, county at 250 deaths
There are signs of improvement in the coronavirus pandemic, but the numbers continue to climb.
Sacramento County has exceeded 250 deaths from COVID-19 during the pandemic, local health officials said Tuesday.
The death toll from the virus stands at 252, and the cumulative infection total swelled by nearly 300 new cases to 16,623, as of a Tuesday morning update to the county’s COVID-19 data dashboard.
The update also saw the city of Sacramento, where 500,000 people live, surpass 10,000 infections. That means roughly 2% of capital city residents have tested positive for the highly contagious virus, the spread of which was detected locally in early March.
The city of Sacramento accounts for 156 of the county’s COVID-19 fatalities, and 47 residents of unincorporated territories have died. Another 14 have died in Elk Grove, 12 in Citrus Heights, 11 in Rancho Cordova, six in Galt and five in Folsom, according to the county public health office.
Local health officials most recently estimated as of Monday, based on typical recovery periods, that more than 3,600 of the county’s lab-confirmed cases remained active and are not yet classified as “likely recovered” or dead. Sacramento has hovered near that number of active cases for several weeks, including most of July; in early June, it had been below 250.
Sacramento County has seen its level of concurrent hospitalized coronavirus patients and those in intensive care units decrease in recent weeks, in line with a statewide decline that’s continued across California over the past month. The county had 221 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, including 64 in ICUs, as of a Tuesday morning update to state data, down from respective highs of about 280 and 91 in late July. The county has 111 available ICU beds.
Sacramento still isn’t particularly close to being off the California Department of Public Health’s watchlist for counties because it has had too many new cases. Counties must record an average of fewer than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents over the preceding two weeks to come off the list; Sacramento’s rate as of Tuesday was 167 per 100,000, state data show.
The county of about 1.5 million people has processed 282,000 tests, according to the data dashboard; 16,623 cases represents 5.9% of those tests coming back positive as of Tuesday. Health officials said that 6.6% of last week’s tests returned positive, which is a gradual improvement from the beginning of August.
State health officials have set a goal of keeping the test positivity rate, which is an indicator of true spread of the virus while adjusting for testing capacity, below 8% statewide and within counties. Sacramento County’s one-week average positivity has been above the 8% mark during two stretches: from July 17 to July 24, and Aug. 3 to Aug. 8, the dashboard shows. Prior to a sharp surge in cases that started the second half of June, Sacramento County’s rate stayed below 2% for more than six straight weeks, from May 3 through June 16.
Sacramento County considers $1,000 stay-home-from-work payments
Amid the pandemic and the economic damage resulting from widespread, months-long business closures that it prompted, Sacramento County is working to create an experimental plan that would pay some workers $1,000 to stay home from work for two weeks to avoid infecting colleagues, customers and others. The stipend would equate to about two weeks of pay at $12.50 an hour.
“A major point is to make sure people have the resources they need to be able to isolate,” Sacramento County Public Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said.
County health officials will discuss the idea further in the coming weeks.
California’s COVID-19 situation improving, but beware flu season
By most available metrics, California is showing signs of decreasing or stabilizing COVID-19 activity recently.
The past few weeks have seen lower rates of new cases, steep declines to hospitalization and ICU rates and falling test rate positivity. Triple-digit daily death tolls have continued throughout most of August, but the rolling average for new deaths has slowly trended downward since the middle of the month.
State Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said in a Tuesday COVID-19 update that California’s numbers are showing progress, and that we’re once again bending the curve. But he cautioned that the incoming flu season could place more strain on hospitals already grappling with a novel disease.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that updated guidance for reopening, including school campuses, is coming this week, after the state’s stay-at-home order was last modified toward tighter restrictions July 13.
Ghaly said Tuesday that the guidance will include information about what individuals should do to prevent spread when visiting friends and family members. Nearly all state-issued guidelines from earlier in the pandemic have been focused on what local governments, businesses, churches and other gathering places should do.
To date, more than 670,000 Californians have tested positive for COVID-19 and over 12,000 have died.
Two fatalities in Nevada County brings total to five dead
Nevada County, which has managed to stay off of the state coronavirus watchlist, reported two new deaths Tuesday, significantly increasing the total to five fatalities. The county has 424 cases as of Tuesday, with 62 listed as active.
The county has three patients hospitalized with the coronavirus, none of whom are in the intensive care unit. There are three ICU beds available.
Both deaths were reported by a county official as elderly patients in the western area of Nevada County without any other information, according to The Union newspaper of Grass Valley.
Rest of Sacramento region: Over 8,100 infected, 96 dead
The remainder of the six-county Sacramento region — El Dorado, Placer, Yolo and the Yuba-Sutter bi-county area — has combined for more than to 8,100 lab-positive cases and 96 deaths.
Yolo County health officials have reported a total of 2,255 COVID-19 cases and 49 deaths. The county added 17 new cases and three new deaths Tuesday. There were eight patients in hospitals in the county Tuesday, four of whom were in ICUs, according to state data. The county has eight ICU beds remaining.
Yolo has seen outbreaks at several long-term care facilities, which account for 118 of its case total and 22 of its fatalities. Woodland’s Stollwood Convalescent Hospital reported an outbreak in April and it is still the most severe outbreak in the county. There, 66 people connected to the facility have been infected with coronavirus and 17 have died. The facility will close permanently in September.
A more recent outbreak reported last Wednesday at a long-term care facility, Gloria’s Country Care in Woodland, has left seven residents and nine staff infected. Two have been hospitalized, and none have died.
Placer County has reported 2,833 cases and 32 deaths as of Tuesday’s update, adding 38 cases and one fatality from Monday’s tally. The county’s relatively low rate of transmission allowed it to be taken off of the state’s watchlist last week.
There were 42 people hospitalized in the county being treated specifically for COVID-19 as of Tuesday, 16 of them in ICUs.
El Dorado County has reported 932 COVID-19 cases, with eight new confirmations as of Tuesday and 28 new confirmations over the weekend. Two weeks ago, on Aug. 10, the county reported its second COVID-19 death. State data show one one patient infected with the virus in an El Dorado hospital, in an intensive care unit. The county has 10 available ICU beds.
El Dorado County remains the only county in the greater Sacramento area to have not been placed onto the state’s regional coronavirus watchlist.
Sutter County has reported a total of 1,312 cases and eight deaths, with one fatality reported over the weekend, as of Tuesday. The county reported 27 new cases Tuesday, and 18 people infected with the virus were being hospitalized in the county; three of whom are in the ICU.
In neighboring Yuba County, 883 people have been infected and five have died. One new death due to COVID-19 was reported Tuesday, along with six new cases. Eight people in the county were hospitalized with the virus Tuesday; two of them in the ICU.
World numbers: 817,000 dead, including 178,000 in U.S.
More than 23.8 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 worldwide, and more than 817,000 of them have died, data maintained by Johns Hopkins University showed as of Tuesday night. More than 178,000 of the deaths, or about 22% of the world total, have been in the United States.
The U.S. has also reported by far the highest number of cases at nearly 5.8 million; Brazil and India are next highest at 3.6 million and 3.1 million, respectively. No other country has reached 1 million cases, according to Johns Hopkins.
Brazil is also next in the death toll at more than 116,000 dead, followed by Mexico at over 60,000 and India at over 58,000.
The United Kingdom’s count early last week was lowered by more than 5,000 after the government changed its methodology, The New York Times reported. The U.K. now shows more than 41,500 COVID-19 deaths.
More than 35,000 have died in Italy, over 30,000 in France, almost 29,000 in Spain, nearly 28,000 in Peru and over 20,000 in Iran. Colombia has a death toll of over 17,600, while Russia is over 16,500, according to Johns Hopkins. South Africa is over 13,000 dead and Chile is approaching 11,000. Belgium, Germany and Canada have 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 U.S. 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 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 25, 2020 at 1:53 PM.
