Placer hospitals ‘no longer overwhelmed.’ Details emerge on COVID’s toll in Placer County
The toll of COVID-19 on Placer County turned out not to be as deadly in January as public health officials feared.
Forty-eight people died of the virus last month compared to an all-time high of 80 in December, said Dr. Rob Oldham, health and human services director and interim public health officer for Placer County. Of those who died, 91% had at least one underlying health condition, according to the county’s monthly epidemiology report.
Oldham called the downward trend in COVID-19 activity “good news.”
“We are cautiously optimistic that with sustained community effort to decrease transmission we can see additional improvements,” he said in a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday. “However, future improvements are unlikely to be as precipitous as we’ve seen in the last month.”
The county’s case rate — one of the important metrics that determines the county’s ranking in the statewide tier model — stands at 14.7 cases per 100,000, down from 56 per 100,000 at the beginning of January.
Placer’s seven-day positivity rate has dropped to 6% from 13.7% on Jan 2., falling within the range for the red tier, signaling a potential drop in the coming weeks if the trend holds.
Hospitalization rates for the virus have dropped to levels that were last seen before Thanksgiving, Oldham said, an improvement he attributed to widespread vaccination of the county’s healthcare workers.
“(Placer’s) hospitals are no longer overwhelmed with COVID cases,” he said.
Placer County has 64 people hospitalized with the virus compared to more than 200 one month ago. Of the 64 people, 13 are in ICU beds, according to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard.
However, transmission of the virus still remains high, with household transmission now the leading cause in Placer County, a trend that is continuing across California, according to the county’s epidemiology report. People reporting attending large gatherings dropped significantly in January, accounting for 184 cases, contact tracers found.
“The good news is with our investment in testing, contact tracing, outreach to less advantaged neighborhoods and robust and equitable vaccine distribution, I think we’re well positioned to at least make a run at it (moving to the red tier),” Oldham said.
On Monday, the county’s vaccine clinic administered vaccine to a record 1,155 people in one day. Placer County is ranked fourth among California’s 58 counties in terms of the shots administered per capita, The Sacramento Bee calculated using CDPH data last week.
To date, the county has received more than 15,000 doses of vaccine, but county officials said Tuesday they will need more vaccine to keep up the pace.
“We still don’t have enough vaccine and that’s what we just got to keep reminding everybody,” said Supervisor Cindy Gustafson, who represents the Lake Tahoe area. “We’d be doing more if we had more and that’s where we need to focus our political energy.”
Placer County was among one of the first counties to open vaccination appointments to teachers, childcare workers and first responders last week. But getting an appointment has proved troublesome to many because slots at the county’s clinic frequently fill up within minutes of becoming available.
Mike Romero, public health program manager for the county who is spearheading the county’s vaccine plan, said Tuesday that it is difficult to make vaccine appointments available for weeks in advance because the county is often unsure how much vaccine it will receive in a week.
“The answer is getting more vaccine,” he said.