Coronavirus updates: Moderna’s vaccine gets key backing as infections soar in California
The U.S. added a second COVID-19 vaccine to its arsenal Friday, boosting efforts to beat back an outbreak so dire that the nation is regularly recording more than 3,000 deaths a day.
Much-needed doses are set to arrive Monday after the Food and Drug Administration authorized an emergency rollout of the vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. and the National Institutes of Health.
The move marks the world’s first authorization for Moderna’s shots. The vaccine is very similar to one from Pfizer Inc. and Germany’s BioNTech that’s now being dispensed to millions of health care workers and nursing home residents as the biggest vaccination drive in U.S. history starts to ramp up.
The two work “better than we almost dared to hope,” NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins told The Associated Press. “Science is working here, science has done something amazing.”
Early results of large, still unfinished studies show both vaccines appear safe and strongly protective although Moderna’s is easier to handle since it doesn’t need to be stored at ultra-frozen temperatures.
A second vaccine represents a ray of hope amid despair as the virus continues to spread unabated even before holiday gatherings that are certain to further fuel the outbreak.
The scourge has claimed more than 312,000 U.S. lives and killed 1.7 million people worldwide. New cases in the U.S. are running at over 216,000 per day on average. Deaths per day have hit all-time highs, eclipsing 3,600 on Wednesday.
And since California is coming up short on doses of the Pfizer vaccine, Moderna’s product could help shore up supplies after emergency use authorization is granted.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who previously said he expected nearly 400,000 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, announced this week that the next shipment the state is set to receive will contain just 233,000 doses. The difference was due to a mismatch of data estimates between state and federal health officials.
Despite early implementation of the vaccine, the coronavirus is still wreaking havoc in California.
ICU beds are filling up across the state as more and more people get sick with COVID-19. California hospitals are nearing capacity in some regions, already under strict economic restrictions intended to curb the spread during the winter surge health officials have been predicting for months.
On Thursday, the Southern California region maxed out its ICU capacity, and the San Joaquin Valley, which has been at or near zero for several days, has less than 1% of its ICU beds open.
Statewide, only 3% of all ICU beds are available. Northern California has fared the best so far, and is the only region to remain free from Newsom’s most recent, and most stringent, orders. It has more than 25% of its ICU beds open, well over the 15% threshold that triggers restrictions, including a ban on in-person dining in restaurants.
On Wednesday, the Bay Area region dropped below that threshold, reaching 13.1% ICU capacity. The Greater Sacramento region has 11.3% ICU capacity available.
All over the state, more than 15,000 people are hospitalized with confirmed cases of coronavirus, 3,280 of whom are being treated in ICUs. At the height of summer, the highest number of people in hospitals for COVID-19 was a little more than 7,000.
The state has 1,260 ICU beds available, a number that has been steadily declining since mid-October, when more than 3,000 beds were still open.
California also continues to break daily infection records, as health officials reported a whopping 53,711 infections on Tuesday and 52,281 on Wednesday. A sudden jump came this week after Monday’s report of 32,326 infections.
Those numbers make the summer surge look like a walk in the park, when 12,000 daily infections was considered a high amount. The state’s average test positivity rate from the last seven days was 12.8%
All told, 1.72 million Californians have been infected with coronavirus and 21,860 have died of COVID-19.
Another record was set in terms of daily deaths on Wednesday, when 379 people were reported dead of the virus.
Infection totals rise in Sacramento County
Sacramento County has reported a total of 53,185 infections since the onset of the pandemic, and 727 people have died of COVID-19. As in the rest of the state, the infection rate has been rapidly rising as winter approaches.
County health officials reported 1,130 additional cases and 12 deaths Wednesday, followed by 1,003 cases and 16 deaths Thursday. Over summer, the county never surpassed triple-digit infections in a single day. The highest daily infection increase then was a mere 403 on July 20. Availability of local ICU beds has been on a slow, but steady downward spiral.
In the past week alone, more than 6,700 infections have been reported, along with 68 deaths.
Sacramento County has 70 ICU beds available, down from an average closer to 100 earlier in the fall and in late summer, but up from 55 last week. Across the county, 478 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Friday, 102 of whom are being treated in ICUs. The county’s most recent weekly average test positivity rate is 10.6%, up from 10.4% from last week’s data.
The county is on track to record more deaths in December than in November, the second-deadliest month of the pandemic. Local health officials say at least 133 people died in Sacramento County in the month of November.
Yolo County has reported a total of 6,549 infections, 70 of which were reported on Thursday, and 99 deaths. Two deaths were reported Thursday and 11 deaths total were reported over the last week, along with 775 new infections.
The county’s most recent weekly test positivity rate is nearly 11.12%, which has risen from less than 4% at the start of October. As of Friday, Yolo County has just one ICU bed available, with 14 patients already being treated for the virus in ICUs. In all, 24 people are hospitalized with COVID-19.
Placer County health officials have reported a total of 10,554 infections and 98 deaths. In the past week, nearly 1,700 new infections have been reported, along with nine deaths. On Wednesday, 250 infections were reported and on Thursday, 582 were reported.
Over summer, the highest daily infection total was just 68, on July 27. Health officials say more than 7,500 of the people with reported infections are likely recovered, which means there are over 3,000 people in Placer County currently sick with coronavirus.
Recent data indicates a weekly positivity rate of 12.9%. Since late September, the average per capita infection rate has soared. For every 100,000 county residents, just over three had coronavirus as of Sept. 25. As of Dec. 8, the most recent data point available, that number is nearly 50. Currently, 179 people are in Placer County hospitals with COVID-19 and 27 are in ICUs. The county has five ICU beds available.
El Dorado County has reported 4,412 positive test results and eight deaths. In the last week, more than 780 new cases have been confirmed. The current test positivity rate is 12% and the county is also averaging 829 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 people. Health officials say 28 people are hospitalized with the virus, 10 of them in ICUs. State data shows four ICU beds available in El Dorado County.
In Sutter County, 5,369 people have been infected and 42 have died. Of those, 83 were confirmed infected Thursday and three were reported dead. In the past week, 11 deaths have been reported and nearly 800 infections have been tallied. County health officials reported a daily record for infections with 204 new cases on Dec. 8. Currently 51 people are hospitalized.
Neighboring Yuba County has reported 2,780 infections and 14 dead, with 81 new infections on Thursday. In the past week, over 430 new infections and four deaths have been reported. Its daily infection record was broken on Thursday, when 89 people were confirmed to have coronavirus. On Dec. 6, 87 people were confirmed infected. Eighteen people are currently in the hospital.
The test positivity rate in Sutter County is 23.7%, and it has reported 98.1 coronavirus patients for every 100,000 people. Yuba County’s test positivity rate is 20.1% and it has 68.6 coronavirus-positive residents for every 100,000 residents.
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 9:23 AM.