Coronavirus updates: California’s vaccine campaign marred by incomplete data
California’s coronavirus infection numbers are as low as they have been since late November, while hospitalizations and deaths also are on the decline.
The state has reported an average of 12,548 new COVID-19 cases per day over the past two weeks, the California Department of Public Health said Friday, which is its lowest since Nov. 27. The test positivity rate of 5.1% is its lowest since Nov. 18, and is down from an early January peak of 14%.
The fatality rate peaked at 542 virus deaths a day on Feb. 1 as a two-week average, and has since dropped to 459. There is still a long way to go to return to pre-surge levels of fewer than 50 deaths a day in mid-November.
Hospital crowding has eased, with the statewide total for confirmed COVID-19 patients in intensive care dropping from a peak of nearly 4,900 to about 2,850 as of Friday. The number of virus patients in hospital beds statewide has dropped below 10,000 for the first time in more than two months.
All of this being said, state and local health officials urge the public to stay vigilant and wear a mask (or perhaps two), practice social distancing and avoid gatherings, especially given recent discoveries of concerning genetic variants of the coronavirus that have been confirmed in the Bay Area and in the Sacramento area.
As the state, U.S. and world continue to pursue a largely unprecedented mass vaccination campaign to combat the pandemic, the hope is to avoid another surge.
To date, more than 3.38 million Californians have tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 46,002 have died, according to CDPH.
State is undercounting vaccinations, county officials say
CDPH in an online data dashboard tracking COVID-19 vaccination progress says California has administered close to 5.3 million total shots.
But at the county level, health officers are telling lawmakers the dashboard is significantly underreporting the number of total doses injected. The executive director of the California State Association of Counties told The Bee late last week the undercounting appears to amount to hundreds of thousands of doses missing statewide across numerous counties.
Yolo County health officer Dr. Aimee Sisson and Los Angeles County’s chief science officer, Dr. Paul Simon, were among those testifying to lawmakers on the matter during a Wednesday hearing.
Sisson expressed concern Yolo County “could be penalized for what the state sees as an administration rate of 51%, but is actually an administration rate of 74%” of its received doses.
CDPH Director Dr. Tomás Aragón acknowledged the errors and said the state is working to fix them.
Sacramento-area death toll approaching 2,000
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 144,000 combined positive cases and at least 1,982 virus deaths.
Sacramento County has confirmed 89,965 cases since the start of the pandemic, and at least 1,372 of those residents died of COVID-19. The county reported 331 new cases and increased the death toll by 12 in a Friday update, following 271 cases and eight deaths added Thursday.
By date of death occurrence, December and January were Sacramento County’s two deadliest months of the pandemic. Local health officials have confirmed 382 deaths for December and at least 287 in January.
Local health officials have also started confirming deaths for February. At least 21 residents died of the virus the first week of this month.
Prior to December, the county’s deadliest month of the pandemic was August, at 181 virus deaths.
The countywide total for hospitalized virus patients dropped from 245 on Thursday to 237 by Friday, according to CDPH, and the ICU total fell from 66 to 65.
Placer County health officials have confirmed a total of 19,175 infections and 222 deaths. Placer reported 54 new cases and five new deaths Thursday, following 85 cases and one death reported Wednesday.
State data Friday showed 76 virus patients in Placer hospitals, the fewest since Nov. 17 and down substantially from 114 one week ago. The ICU total is now at 18, the same as Thursday but down from 23 on Feb. 5.
Yolo County has reported a total of 12,138 cases and 172 deaths. The county reported 49 new cases and no deaths in Thursday’s update. Yolo reported 12 deaths Tuesday and two on Wednesday.
Yolo officials recently noted that deaths are confirmed in groups, meaning there may be no deaths noted for several days and then many confirmed in a day or two. The county had not reported any deaths Saturday through Monday.
State data showed Yolo with 13 virus patients in hospitals as of Friday’s update, up from 11 on Thursday but with the ICU total continuing to decline, from five to four.
El Dorado County has reported 8,827 positive test results and 88 deaths, adding 20 new cases and reporting two deaths in a Thursday update.
El Dorado has reported a significant spike in virus deaths compared to the first several months of the health crisis: 84 county residents have died of COVID-19 since Nov. 25, compared to four from last March through mid-November.
State data show El Dorado’s COVID-19 patient total has plummeted, from 21 two weeks ago to just two by Friday’s update. The ICU total has held at zero for six straight days.
In Sutter County, at least 8,639 people have contracted the virus and 92 have died. Yuba County, which shares a health office with Sutter, has reported 5,565 infections and 36 dead, last reporting four deaths in a Monday update that included the weekend.
The lone hospital serving the Yuba-Sutter bicounty region — Adventist-Rideout in Marysville — had 32 hospitalized virus patients as of Friday’s state data update, down by two for the second straight day, but with the ICU total increasing from 10 on Thursday to 11.
This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 6:53 AM.
