Sacramento gaining ground in COVID fight. But be wary of Super Bowl gatherings
The line for COVID-19 vaccines at Sacramento’s new clinic on Expo Parkway Thursday was longer than the line at the Costco next door. Call it a sign of changing times.
After a winter surge of coronavirus cases, followed by weeks of disturbingly slow vaccine rollout, the Sacramento region has turned the corner for the better in the last week on both fronts.
The number of vaccinations conducted in Sacramento County hit 6,000 a day, with expectations of increases soon. Health officials have opened vaccination appointments now to people age 65 and up, after initially focusing on healthcare workers and people 75-plus.
Even beleaguered Sacramento County teachers could start getting doses within about the next week-and-a-half. And Placer County teachers got the go-ahead this week to make inoculation appointments.
Meanwhile, infection rates and hospitalizations are down notably in the region from their highs around Christmas and the start of the year. Sacramento and Placer counties’ daily case rates are as low as they’ve been since before Thanksgiving, data from each local health office show, mirroring recent trends for California as a whole.
Are we finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, a year into the historic pandemic?
Maybe, health officials say. Then again, there are hurdles just ahead. Super Bowl Sunday, one of the biggest party days of the year, arrives this weekend. The Lunar New Year, another day of celebration, comes the following Sunday. It’s the Year of the Ox, a hint we still have a burden to bear.
“We have passed the peak,” Sacramento County Public Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said.
But she is still worried.
“The Super Bowl is a concern. It is very important for everyone to realize, we need to remain vigilant,” she said. “There is still a lot of infection and transmission going on. In the past, we know, these kinds of events have been the catalyst for a surge in cases.”
And, even as the Biden administration ramps up national delivery of vaccine doses, local officials continue to lament they are not yet getting enough.
“It is still going to be a supply issue, a vaccine supply issue for us,” Yolo County spokeswoman Jenny Tan said this week.
The same goes for California as a whole. “The supply of vaccine … will be one of our biggest challenges,” state Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said during a Tuesday press briefing. “The chance for another surge is real.
“Our case rates are down, but they are not low. COVID is still around in our communities. We have to keep our guard up. It comes back to our own personal choices.”
To date, California has reported more than 3.3 million confirmed COVID-19 infections, and at least 43,024 of those residents have died of the virus, according to the California Department of Public Health. Test positivity in the past two weeks is now at 6.6%, down from 14% less than a month ago.
The state, in a daily update from CDPH on Friday, fell below 13,000 patients hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 for the first time since Dec. 11, and below 3,500 in intensive care units for the first time since Dec. 17.
CDPH continues to report hundreds of COVID-19 deaths per day, as the state reels from its massive winter surge.
First dose recipient: ‘I’m half safe!’
Vaccine distribution moved out of first gear in Sacramento this week, although counties and private health care providers continue to say they have the capacity to deliver many more doses than they are getting in weekly shipments.
A Bee review of the state vaccine database indicates the six-county Sacramento region should hit a quarter-million doses administered to residents by Friday morning’s update. Most of those are first doses, but some of them second doses; statewide, the breakdown has been roughly 80-20. The Sacramento region’s population is about 2.5 million.
Sutter Health opened three large vaccination clinics this week — in Sacramento, Roseville and Modesto — and reports they are giving about 1,000 shots a day at each of those sites, which are open seven days a week. The provider on Thursday opened appointments for patients 65 and older.
Lines of cars were reported at the county’s Cal Expo site as well, where 800 shots were delivered Thursday and where officials say they hope to get to 1,200 daily shots in a few weeks. And UC Davis Health opened another major vaccination site in Roseville earlier this week.
Among those getting the vaccine this week at the Sutter inoculation site next to Costco was 107-year-old Edna Brown, a former housekeeper who lives in Del Paso Heights. Her son Lonnie Brown, 70, brought here in. He had already gotten his first dose.
“My mom doesn’t like shots,” Brown said. “She fought us on it. ‘I had a shot six months ago,’ she said. We told her this one is different!”
Brown, who is Black and is a retired teacher, said he has talked with African-American friends who are reticent to get the shot. “They don’t want to be an experiment. But I say, ‘Follow the science.’”
Sandy March, 82, of south Sacramento, a former library worker who has diabetes, was among the hundreds as well who got shots in a large office this week. A Sutter worker with a pink flag waved her over to an available injection station.
“I’m ready,” she told the nurse. Then, a second later, “That was easy.” Turning to her daughter, who had driven her to the pop-up clinic, she exclaimed: “I’m getting closer to freedom!”
She will take a second dose in three weeks, but says she is used to wearing her face masks and plans to keep doing it until she hears Sacramento is safe. After her second shot, she’ll give the vaccine a couple of weeks to settle in. After that, she says, she’s going out shopping.
At an injection station nearby, Doris Taylor, 83, who heard about the vaccine on her church website, expressed relief when she got her shot.
“I’m half safe! I’m halfway there.”
Sacramento area by the numbers: Over 140,000 cases to date
The six counties that make up the bulk of the 13-county Greater Sacramento region — Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties — have reported more than 140,000 combined positive cases and at least 1,874 virus deaths.
Following the statewide trend, the rate of new cases is slowing in all six of those counties; reports of deaths, which lag a few weeks behind infections, continue to pour in.
Sacramento County has confirmed 87,704 cases since the start of the pandemic, and at least 1,302 of those residents have died of COVID-19. The county added 334 new cases and increased the death toll by 14 on Friday, after reporting 333 new cases and seven deaths in Thursday’s update.
By date of death occurrence, December and January have been Sacramento County’s two deadliest months of the pandemic. Local health officials have confirmed 379 deaths for December and at least 242 for Jan. 1 through Jan. 29. January’s total will continue to grow, as it can take weeks for death confirmations to be made official.
Prior to December, the county’s deadliest month of the pandemic was August, at 181 virus deaths.
The countywide total for hospitalized virus patients fell from 302 Thursday to 292 on Friday, according to CDPH. The county hadn’t been below 300 since late November.
The ICU total stands at 78, from a peak of 130 a little over two weeks ago. CDPH reported 65 ICU beds available in Sacramento County as of Friday, down from 73 on Thursday but up from 60 on Wednesday.
Placer County health officials have confirmed a total of 18,738 infections and 206 deaths. Placer on Thursday reported 68 new cases and one fatality, following 32 cases and four deaths in Wednesday’s update.
State data on Friday showed 114 virus patients in Placer hospitals, up from 108 on Thursday, but with the ICU dropping from 25 to 23. The state says eight ICU beds remain available, down from 13 on Wednesday.
Yolo County has reported a total of 11,826 cases and 158 deaths. Yolo on Thursday added 56 new cases with no fatalities, after adding 59 cases and two deaths Wednesday. Health officials recently noted that death reporting can come in clusters — none for a few days, then several in one day — due to how the death confirmation process is performed.
State data showed Yolo with 13 virus patients as of Friday’s update, up one from Thursday, with the ICU total holding at six and available ICU beds staying at three.
El Dorado County has reported 8,552 positive test results and 85 deaths. The county reported 70 cases and two deaths Thursday following 73 cases and two deaths reported Wednesday.
El Dorado has reported a remarkable surge in virus deaths compared to the first several months of the health crisis: 81 county residents have died of COVID-19 since late November, compared to four from March through mid-November.
State health officials reported El Dorado’s patient total falling from nine on Thursday to eight by Friday, with the ICU total falling from two to one. Eight ICU beds are now available, up from six on Thursday.
In Sutter County, at least 8,474 people have contracted the virus and 91 have died. The county reported 42 new cases and no new deaths in a Thursday update.
Yuba County, which shares a health office with Sutter, has reported 5,424 infections and 32 dead. Yuba added just one new case and no fatalities Thursday, following 17 cases apiece on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The lone hospital serving the Yuba-Sutter bicounty region — Adventist-Rideout in Marysville — had 43 hospitalized virus patients as of Friday’s state data update, down from 48 on Thursday. The ICU patient total has held at 11 for the past four days, but the available ICU beds rose from zero Thursday to one on Friday.
This story was originally published February 5, 2021 at 7:19 AM.
