Sacramento County COVID rates now among highest in California. Here’s who’s getting sick
Coronavirus activity is surging again in California’s capital region, where loosened restrictions and the dangerous Delta variant may be intersecting with lackluster vaccination rates.
Sacramento County as of Tuesday had recorded more COVID-19 cases per capita in the past week than any other county statewide with at least 100,000 residents, according to numbers updated Tuesday by the California Department of Public Health.
The local health office on Tuesday reported a daily average of 147 new virus cases over the past week, or 9.3 per 100,000 residents. That’s up nearly 40% from the previous week and is the county’s worst rate since the week ending April 19, the same week all Californians 16 and older became eligible for the vaccine.
“We continue to see day-to-day increases of new COVID cases. The majority of cases are among those who were not vaccinated,” Sacramento County health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye wrote in an emailed statement to The Sacramento Bee.
Presenting during a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Kasirye reiterated that some increase was expected after the state reopened its economy June 15.
But she also said she believes the now-dominant Delta variant is playing a factor, and she repeatedly hammered on the importance of getting vaccinated to protect against it.
“I do believe that (the Delta variant) is contributing to the increase in cases we’ve seen, but the good news is that the vaccine has been shown to be effective,” Kasirye said.
Who is getting infected?
The health officer shared data on which areas and demographics have seen the biggest increases in cases.
Kasirye emphasized a slide showing that Black residents have made up 22% of the county’s COVID-19 cases in the past 30 days, up from 12% for the rest of the pandemic up to that point.
“That’s where we’re seeing the most concerning increase in cases,” she said. “When you add up the African American and the Hispanic (populations), it accounts for about 50% of our cases in the last 30 days.”
CDPH data shows that an estimated 32% of Sacramento County’s Black residents and 28% of its Latino residents are fully vaccinated, compared to 47% for the county’s overall population.
Kasirye in another graph showed that the recent case rate in fully vaccinated residents was just over two per 100,000, while it was more than 12 per 100,000 in those who are not fully vaccinated.
“It is not 100%, but we know that (vaccines) are effective,” Kasirye said. “And one way that I know they are really effective is, even with these increases in numbers, we have not seen outbreaks in long-term care facilities,” such as nursing homes.
Kasirye also mentioned a list of ZIP codes with the highest recent case rates, which she said shows overlap with neighborhoods having low vaccination rates.
“It’s South Sac, South Natomas, North Highlands and Arden Arcade,” she summarized.
In another chart, Kasirye showed that juveniles have increased from 11% of cases earlier in the pandemic to 18% over the past month. Vaccines have been authorized for ages 12 through 15 since May, but have not yet been authorized for children under 12. The county reports 29% of residents ages 12 through 19 are fully vaccinated.
“When you see this kind of information, you can see that what we really need to do is continue with our vaccination efforts, especially, as I mentioned, for those communities of color … especially in underserved areas,” she told county supervisors.
More COVID-19 patients in hospitals
State health officials on Tuesday reported 106 positive cases in Sacramento County hospitals, the county’s highest tally in any day since March 16 and roughly double its totals from mid-June. As has been the case throughout the pandemic, hospitalizations are rising on about a two-week delay from when infections started to rise.
As has also been the case, Kasirye suggested it would not be surprising to see deaths increase in about another two weeks, primarily in unvaccinated cases currently hospitalized.
Placer County had 46 in hospital beds, matching its highest point since March 4, though health officials there have repeatedly noted many of their patients come from out-of-county, including Sacramento.
In largely rural El Dorado County, the hospitalized tally has soared during July from one virus patient to 13, its highest mark since late January, according to CDPH.
Even Yolo County, which has the best vaccination rate in the Sacramento area, has eight virus patients in hospital beds, its most since early March.
Is the surge from the Delta variant?
Experts believe the Delta variant is much more contagious than previous variants, and genotype testing shows it is now the dominant strain in California, making up at least 43% of specimens from June that have been tested for variants so far.
But it remains unclear how highly concentrated the variant is locally because lab testing resources in the state remain limited, Kasirye said.
The county health office in a Tuesday update reported there have been 101 cumulative cases of the variant in Sacramento County, up from 75 one week earlier.
But officials haven’t indicated or estimated what percentage of overall cases that might represent. County epidemiology program manager Jamie White said on a call with reporters Thursday that the specimens being sent to state labs for genome sequencing are not random samples.
Instead, they come mainly from cases linked to outbreaks, hospitalized cases and cases among the fully vaccinated, factors that can skew the number.
“In Placer, we are still receiving larger numbers of B.1.1.7 (Alpha variant) sequencing results, but the numbers of Delta results are growing, and sequencing results generally are coming in for cases that are a few weeks old so may not be reflective of the current status,” Placer County health director Dr. Robert Oldham said in an emailed response.
“Given what we’re seeing nationally and globally with Delta’s transmission, it’s certainly reasonable to presume that it will become the dominant variant if it hasn’t already,” Oldham said.
How low are local vaccination rates?
Only about 47% of Sacramento County residents are fully vaccinated, compared to 52% statewide, according to CDPH data. Of the five others in the six-county capital region — El Dorado, Placer, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba — only Yolo has cracked 50% full vaccination, matching the state at 52%.
Yuba and Sutter have the region’s lowest rates, at 30% and 37% of their populations fully vaccinated, respectively. Sacramento and El Dorado are each at 47% and Placer is at 49%.
Most of the six-county capital region is showing signs of increased spread, especially in areas with low vaccination rates.
Yuba, Sutter and Sacramento ranked fourth-, fifth- and seventh-worst among all 58 counties by test positivity, with respective rates of 5.5%, 5.2% and 4.5% over the past week, CDPH said Tuesday. El Dorado and Placer fared slightly better at 3.9%. Yolo is best in the region at an even 1%.
Statewide positivity hit 2.7% as of Tuesday and has nearly quadrupled from the record low of 0.7% reached in early June.
This story was originally published July 13, 2021 at 2:37 PM.
