Masks, omicron: Here’s where Sacramento stands on COVID as California enters new order
Citing a post-Thanksgiving increase in the statewide COVID-19 case rate, California health officials on Monday announced the state will return to a universal indoor mask requirement, lasting from this Wednesday through Jan. 15.
Half of the four-county capital region — Sacramento and Yolo counties — already had returned to local mask mandates in July, doing so in response to the delta variant.
El Dorado and Placer counties, meanwhile, will see the return of mask restrictions for the first time in half a year. California dropped its statewide mask mandate June 15, and neither county has had a local mask order — nor any other COVID-19 local health orders — in place since 2020.
California as a whole has seen its case rate climb from 9.6 to 13.6 daily cases per 100,000 residents since the week ending on Thanksgiving, according to California Department of Public Health data updated Tuesday.
Close to 3,600 are hospitalized with the virus statewide, up 17% since the holiday.
More omicron cases found in Sacramento area
Yolo became the first county in the Sacramento area to confirm a case of the omicron variant, in a West Sacramento adult who tested positive Dec. 2.
According to an update this week from Healthy Davis Together testing initiative and a Yolo County spokesperson, at least two more omicron cases have been detected in Yolo County residents, bringing the countywide total to three. Few details were immediately available about the two new cases, except that the samples were collected last week.
“There are two confirmed omicron and likely a third,” Yolo spokesman John Fout said in an emailed response to The Sacramento Bee on Tuesday. “We have started contact tracing, but we do not have information to report yet.”
The UC Davis Genome Center, which tests all positive samples from Healthy Davis Together for variants, processed 73 samples last week: 71 were of the delta variant (97.3%) and two were of omicron (2.7%), according to the Healthy Davis Together website. The previous week, 113 delta cases and one omicron case were found (99.1% delta, 0.9% omicron).
No other variants were detected either week.
Yolo County as of Tuesday afternoon remained the only county in the Sacramento area to confirm an omicron case, which has also been detected in San Francisco, Alameda, San Diego and Los Angeles counties.
Health experts and researchers worldwide are continuing to study whether omicron is more or less severe than delta, and to what extent the highly mutated variant may be able to evade vaccine protection. It is still not clear how contagious omicron may be, but it quickly became dominant in South Africa and is growing increasingly prevalent in other parts of the world, including the United Kingdom.
Health officials continue to urge vaccination, saying early studies appear to show that vaccines and booster doses should remain effective in reducing the risk of severe illness.
Sacramento-area COVID activity by the numbers
The capital region has seen coronavirus activity tick up since late November, though most of the region remains slightly below the statewide average of 13.6 cases per 100,000.
Sacramento County’s daily case rate increased from 9.6 per 100,000 for the week ending Nov. 27 to 14.2 per 100,000 one week later, on Dec. 4. The rate has since dipped back to 12.9 per 100,000 for the week ending Dec. 10, according to Tuesday’s update from the local health office.
The test positivity rate has increased slightly, from 2.9% to 3.2% since the day before Thanksgiving.
County health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye last week attributed the increase to gatherings and travel the week of Thanksgiving, and urged people to take precautions including indoor masking, vaccinations and booster shots.
Hospitals in the county had 146 COVID-positive patients as of Monday. Hospitalizations have fluctuated between about 125 and 155 since mid-November, state data show.
Sacramento County has reported close to 167,000 confirmed COVID-19 infections since the start of the pandemic. It is also closing in on an unfortunate milestone for fatalities: Seven deaths reported Tuesday increased the all-time total to 2,490.
For the county of roughly 1.55 million people, 2,500 would be about one death for every 600 residents.
Yolo County on Monday reported a case rate of 13 per 100,000, a 46% increase in the past two weeks.
Yolo had just two hospitalized virus patients Monday, down from six at the start of December.
Yolo has recorded more than 20,500 cases and 263 COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic.
Placer County’s case rate increased from 12.2 per 100,000 the week ending Nov. 27 to 15.3 per 100,000 the week ending Dec. 4.
Placer’s test positivity spiked from 4% to 4.5% shortly after Thanksgiving but has since dropped back to 4.2%, according to the local health office.
CDPH data show Placer County had 83 patients hospitalized with the virus Monday. Placer’s hospitalizations have ranged from about 80 to 100 over the past month.
Placer has confirmed 39,200 cases and 483 deaths from COVID-19 to date.
El Dorado County’s latest case rate was 9.5 per 100,000, according to CDPH data updated Tuesday. That’s down from 10.9 per 100,000 on Thanksgiving, making El Dorado one of few California counties to see a decrease in case rate since the holiday.
El Dorado as of Monday had eight patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
Since the start of the pandemic, El Dorado County has confirmed close to 17,000 coronavirus cases and 170 deaths.
