COVID updates: Asymptomatic infected health care workers can work, California says
As the omicron wave pummels California with infections, hospitals across the state are seeing an exponential increase in the number of COVID-positive patients in their beds.
The California Department of Public Health on Monday reported 11,048 patients were hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 statewide as of Sunday.
That means 15% of the state’s roughly 74,000 licensed hospital beds in California are occupied by virus-positive patients.
The COVID-19 patient total has more than doubled in the past 10 days, state health data shows. It is also now above the halfway point of the winter 2020 surge, which peaked just shy of 22,000 in January 2021.
The extraordinarily contagious omicron variant is also leaving many hospitals short-handed as doctors, nurses and other health care workers contract the virus.
In response, CDPH in a weekend letter said health care workers who test positive for the coronavirus but are asymptomatic “may return to work immediately without isolation and without testing.”
Likewise, health care workers with exposure to a confirmed COVID-19 case do not need to quarantine, according to the letter sent Saturday by CDPH to all general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals and skilled nursing facilities in California.
The letter, signed by CDPH acting deputy director Cassie Dunham, said the state is “adjusting the return-to-work criteria” due to “critical staffing shortages.”
Asymptomatic COVID-positive or COVID-exposed health workers “must wear an N95 respirator for source control,” the letter continues.
“These (health care personnel) should preferably be assigned to work with COVID-19 positive patients. However, this may not always be possible in settings such as the emergency department ... or in areas where you may be experiencing extreme staffing shortages.”
The guidance is scheduled to end Feb. 1.
The California Nurses Association immediately condemned the decision to lift isolation and quarantine requirements, noting that asymptomatic people can still spread the virus.
“Eliminating the isolation time and sending asymptomatic or exposed health care workers to work will guarantee more transmission, infections, hospitalizations, and death,” union officials wrote in a Saturday afternoon statement. “By doing all this, (Gov. Gavin) Newsom and CDPH are in effect guaranteeing more transmission.”
CNA demanded “that CDPH rescind its guidance.”
California’s case rate still soaring due to omicron
CDPH reported about 309,000 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in a Monday update, a three-day total including numbers from the weekend.
California’s daily case rate is now 145 per 100,000 residents and its test positivity rate is 22.1%, according to CDPH.
Both are all-time records, well above the highs from the winter 2020 surge, which maxed out at 112 daily cases per 100,000 and 17.1% positivity.
More than 1,700 of Sunday’s 11,048 COVID-positive hospital patients were in intensive care units, up 35% from one week earlier.
The ICU total remains below the peak of about 2,100 at the height of summer’s delta variant surge and is a little above one-third of the all-time record of 4,900 recorded in January 2021.
The state had about 1,600 ICU beds available as of Sunday, according to CDPH.
Over the course of the pandemic, California has recorded more than 5.94 million cases and over 76,500 deaths from COVID-19.
Newsom calls for spending increase, deploys National Guard
Newsom on Saturday called upon state lawmakers to approve $1.4 billion in emergency COVID-19 spending, most of which would go to increasing testing infrastructure and expanding hospital surge capacity.
The governor plans to seek an additional $1.3 billion for pandemic response in his budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year, which begins July 1.
Last Friday, Newsom activated the California National Guard to assist at testing sites, deploying about 200 personnel to OptumServe test sites across the state. Newsom’s office said more personnel would be deployed this week.
The National Guard has also been deployed in previous surges.
Large case loads, high absence rates at Sacramento K-12 schools
Sacramento City Unified School District officials wrote in a Monday email to families that 1,282 students and 307 staff members had tested positive for COVID-19 last week.
The district, like others across the nation, is also facing a staff shortage. More than 580 staff were absent Friday — a “21.2% absentee rate,” according to the district email.
“Given the shortage of substitutes, we were able to cover just over half of those absences with substitute teachers,” the district wrote.
Despite the surge, “Sac City Unified is striving to remain open for safe, in-person learning at all school sites,” district officials wrote.
Numbers continue to climb in other districts. The San Juan Unified School District reported 1,218 student cases on Monday, including 111 active cases at Bella Vista High School. The district caseload is more than double what it was Wednesday.
Elk Grove Unified, the region’s largest district, reported 232 active cases on Monday and a case rate of 94.6 per 100,000, more than triple the peak rate in late August after school restarted.
California prisons suspend visits amid COVID outbreaks
Large outbreaks are emerging once again in California’s prisons, which were hotbeds for transmission in previous surges largely due to overcrowded conditions.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials reported 3,076 active COVID-19 cases among its employees as of Friday and 2,350 active inmate infections as of Monday morning.
CDCR reported at least 1,886 new inmate cases the week beginning Jan. 2, according to its online data tracker. That nearly quadrupled the 486 from the week of Dec. 26, which in turn had more than tripled the tally of 143 for the week starting Dec. 19.
Faced with the outbreaks, CDCR last week announced the suspension of in-person visitations for prison inmates, which began Saturday and will last through at least Jan. 23.
Three prisons had between 400 and 500 active inmate cases: Wasco State Prison in Kern County, the California Rehabilitation Center in Riverside County and the California Institution for Men in Sen Bernardino County.
Folsom State Prison in Sacramento County had 145 active infections as of Monday morning, a sevenfold increase from 20 one week earlier, according to the CDCR data tracker. Eighty-five employees at Folsom State Prison had COVID-19 as of Friday.
Folsom had its largest outbreak of the pandemic in fall 2020, peaking at about 700 inmates simultaneously infected. The historic prison did not exceed a single-digit total for active inmate cases at any point in 2021.
Latest Sacramento-area numbers
Sacramento County has recorded 197,718 total lab-confirmed cases and 2,571 deaths from COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic, according to local health officials.
The county on Monday added close to 10,000 new confirmed cases from the past three days, jolting the daily case rate to a record-smashing 147 per 100,000 residents. The local health office in its previous update Friday had reported the case rate at 101 per 100,000.
Prior to the omicron surge, Sacramento’s highest case rate had been 63.6, set in December 2020.
According to CDPH, Sacramento County’s latest test positivity rate is 23.3%.
County hospitals were treating 426 patients with confirmed COVID-19 as of Sunday, up from 267 one week earlier. The ICU total increased to 72 from 61. Both are at their highest levels since September.
Placer County has tallied 43,766 cases and 493 virus deaths to date, last updated Friday.
Local health officials last reported the daily case rate at 42.2 per 100,000 for the week ending Dec. 28.
Placer’s positivity rate is 22.3%, according to CDPH.
Placer County hospitals had 189 COVID-positive patients Sunday, up from 129 one week earlier. The ICU ticked up to 26 from 25.
Yolo County has confirmed 23,298 infections and 266 deaths from COVID-19, last updated Friday.
The county’s latest reported case rate is 32.3 per 100,000, for the week ending Jan. 3.
CDPH reports Yolo County’s positivity rate at 8.4%, among the state’s lowest.
Yolo County hospitals were treating eight patients with COVID-19 on Sunday, the same as one week earlier. The ICU total dropped from three to two.
El Dorado County has reported 18,994 cumulative cases and 175 deaths from COVID-19, last updated Friday.
El Dorado’s latest reported case rate, for the week ending Dec. 31, was 63.6 per 100,000. That breaks the county’s previous all-time record of 63.3 per 100,000, set in December 2020.
The county had a positivity rate of 24%, CDPH reported Monday.
Hospitals in El Dorado County had 18 COVID-positive patients Sunday, ticking up from 17 a week earlier. Two were in intensive care, down from five one week earlier.
Sutter County has recorded 15,844 cases and 202 deaths, and Yuba County has recorded 12,210 cases with 90 deaths, according to a Thursday update from the bi-county health office.
CDPH reported Sutter County at 52 daily cases per 100,000 and Yuba County at 56 per 100,000 as of Monday.
Positivity was 28.2% in Yuba and 27.7% in Sutter, ranking seventh and 10th highest, respectively, among California’s 58 counties, according to CDPH.
The lone hospital serving Yuba and Sutter counties, Adventist Health and Rideout in Marysville, as of Sunday had 46 patients with confirmed COVID-19, up from 24 one week earlier. Nine were in the ICU, up from six.
This story was originally published January 10, 2022 at 9:55 AM.
