500 dead from coronavirus in capital region, with Sacramento County on brink of 400
Exactly 500 residents in the four-county Sacramento region have died of coronavirus as of Wednesday updates from those counties’ health offices.
Sacramento County’s death toll increased to 399 in that morning’s data update. Another 101 have died among the three neighboring counties of Yolo (54), Placer (43) and El Dorado (four).
With a confirmed fatality total on the brink of 400, it’s become evident that Sacramento County’s summer surge in new infections and hospitalizations due to the virus translated to devastating death figures relative to those of April, May and June.
The quick pace of that devastation is reflected in the time it took to reach each hundred-death milestone.
The county recorded its first death from the respiratory disease known as COVID-19 on March 4. The health office reported its 100th fatality more than 4 1/2 months later, on July 24, as The Sacramento Bee reported at the time. The jump from 100 to 200 dead took just a little over three weeks, with that mark surpassed Aug. 17. Just 15 days later, on Sept. 2, Sacramento County hit 300 dead. Another three weeks later, the total stands one death shy of 400.
More recent figures, including hospitalizations and intensive care unit totals that are now roughly half of their all-time peaks reached in late July, show the Sacramento region’s surge in virus activity has been waning in recent weeks. And state health officials’ assessment of COVID-19 risk levels show infection and test positivity rates have declined enough that Sacramento County might be able to move forward with phased reopening as early as next week. Schools could potentially open for on-campus learning by mid-October, like what happened in neighboring Placer County this week.
But fatalities — a lagging indicator, due to numerous factors including the incubation period of the virus, the time it takes to kill its host and data reporting delays — continue to add up as the calendar flips from summer to fall.
Based on preliminary data between Sept. 1-19, at least 55 people have died this month, the county health office reported Wednesday, and the local dashboard shows that 173 county residents died of the virus in August. That made it by far the worst month of crisis, which is now in its seventh month. August’s total nearly doubled the 88 who were lost to the disease in July.
Who’s dying in Sacramento County, and where?
Of the 399 who have succumbed to the respiratory disease in Sacramento County, 222 were residents of the capital city, according to the county’s COVID-19 data dashboard.
The rest have come in the county’s unincorporated areas (91) and surrounding, mostly suburban cities: 34 Elk Grove residents have died, followed by 23 from Rancho Cordova, 15 from Citrus Heights, seven from Galt and six from Folsom.
The consensus since the earliest weeks of the pandemic has been that COVID-19 is by far the deadliest to older populations, a fact that is reflected in local data.
The county reports that 186 of residents who’ve died were age 80 or older, about 47% of the overall death toll. Eighty victims were in their 70s (20%), 70 in their 60s (18%) and 40 were in their 50s (10%).
Only 13 confirmed deaths (3%) involved people in their 40s, and there have been just five deaths each for people in their 30s and for ages 0 to 29, a little over 1%.
Additionally, “congregate” care facilities — which the county defines as including skilled nursing homes, assisted living facilities, memory care facilities, mental health and rehab treatment centers, all of which cater largely to elderly populations, in addition to Folsom State Prison — combine for only about 4% of the county infection total at 948 cases, but have been linked to well over one-third the overall death toll at 150, according to a figure updated weekly by county health officials.
The county doesn’t break down deaths by facility or name any of those that have suffered outbreaks. The state agencies that license and oversee skilled nursing and assisted living facilities maintain public databases for COVID-19 activity, but they only specify exact resident death counts for senior homes where at least 11 have died, citing privacy concerns.
Three skilled nursing homes in Sacramento County have recorded at least that many deaths, a dashboard from the California Department of Public Health shows. Whitney Oaks Care Center has reported 19 resident deaths, Windsor Elk Grove has reported 12 and Casa Coloma Health Care Center reports 11. At Windsor Elk Grove, at least one employee has died of the virus along with the residents, state data show.
Folsom State Prison, the site of a large, recent outbreak of COVID-19 cases, had no reported, confirmed virus deaths as of Wednesday, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Rest of Sacramento region: 100 deaths among 3 neighbor counties
Yolo County has reported 54 deaths from COVID-19, 27 of them connected to long-term senior care facilities, according to the county’s health office.
Stollwood Convalescent Hospital in Woodland, which was ravaged by an outbreak in the spring and will close permanently next week, accounts for 17 of the fatalities. Three other Yolo senior homes combine for 10 deaths.
In Placer County, 43 residents have died, with one new death reported Wednesday morning. The county health office says 38 of those victims were age 65 or older, and the remaining five were between ages 50 and 64.
The county’s data dashboard doesn’t make note of how many deaths have come at senior living facilities. State data do not show any licensed skilled nursing or assisted living facilities in Placer County with 11 or more deaths, but show eight total senior homes — four in each classification — that have reported between one and 10 resident fatalities, with the exact totals masked for privacy reasons.
El Dorado County, which has fared better than its neighbors by essentially all available metrics throughout the pandemic, has reported only four deaths from COVID-19 despite a population of about 200,000 people, only a bit smaller than Yolo. El Dorado is more sparsely populated, an advantage when limiting the spread of a highly contagious disease.
In statements, El Dorado officials said the four deceased victims have included two Lake Tahoe area men, one of them 65 or older and the other between 50 and 64 years old; a greater Placerville-area man between ages 50 and 64; and an El Dorado Hills woman who was at least 65. None were linked to congregate care facilities, state data show.
Three of Sacramento County’s less populous neighbors have totaled nearly three dozen COVID-19 deaths.
The Yuba-Sutter bicounty area, which shares one health office, has reported 18 total deaths, with 11 in Sutter and seven in Yuba. Smaller Amador County officially reports at least 15 deaths — all of them linked to a single nursing home, Kit Carson Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
Nearly 40% of California COVID-19 deaths come from senior facilities
California officially surpassed 15,000 COVID-19 deaths Monday, according to the state health department. It has recorded 15,204 fatalities, with 133 reported Wednesday. More than 787,000 Californians have tested positive for the virus.
The California Department of Public Health as of Tuesday evening reported 4,384 residents and 149 employees at skilled nursing facilities statewide have died of coronavirus. The latest report this week from the state Department of Social Services shows another 1,024 deaths linked to assisted living facilities.
That’s a combined total of just over 6,000 deaths, which is more than 39% of California’s overall total, linked to state-licensed senior living facilities.
This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 2:34 PM.
