COVID updates: Sacramento’s omicron numbers improving but jail outbreaks worsen
The omicron wave of COVID-19 has started to subside across California, including most of the Sacramento region.
But hospitals remain under stress and outbreaks have continued in various settings including jails.
The statewide case rate has dropped by 30% in the past nine days, from an all-time high of 293 daily cases per 100,000 residents to 205 per 100,000 as of Thursday’s update from the California Department of Public Health. The test positivity rate, which peaked earlier this month at 23%, is now 18.8%.
Both metrics vary widely by region.
Some of the state’s highest positivity rates are in rural parts of Northern California and the Central Valley: Merced, Glenn, Yuba, Tuolumne, Fresno, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tulare, Calaveras and Tehama counties were all above 30% as of Thursday’s update.
At the lower end, Los Angeles County as well as Bay Area counties — San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo and Santa Cruz — were below 15% positivity.
In the middle of the pack is most of the capital region. Sacramento, El Dorado and Placer counties each ranged between 20% and 24% positivity. Neighboring Yolo County, which has one of the state’s most aggressive testing networks, had the state’s lowest positivity rate at 6.1%.
“There’s definitely been a decline,” Sacramento County health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said on a Thursday call with reporters. “We are seeing a decline in the number of new cases.”
Liz Gomez, a county health program coordinator, said on Thursday’s call that testing demand has leveled off. Wait times at community testing sites, which ranged from one to four hours during the height of the omicron surge this month, have fallen back down to about 30 minutes or less.
CDPH on Thursday reported 15,015 COVID-positive patients were in hospital beds Wednesday, dropping 264 from Tuesday. Most of the decline — 211 patients — came in Los Angeles County.
California’s intensive care unit total also fell, to 2,577 virus patients from 2,609 one day earlier.
Case numbers are also starting to decline among nursing home residents and prison inmates, according to state data from CDPH and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Sacramento County likely to extend remote meeting order
Kasirye on Jan. 6 issued a local health order requiring that public meetings of boards, councils and commissions — bodies like city councils, the county Board of Supervisors and school boards — be held virtually rather than in-person.
The order was set to remain in place through at least Feb. 1, with conditions re-evaluated no later than then.
Kasirye on Thursday said that date, which is next Tuesday, “will be too soon” to lift the order.
She said the remote meeting requirement will likely continue through mid-February.
“We are carefully monitoring the numbers,” she said.
Jail outbreaks worsen, hospitalizations high in Sacramento
Kasirye said Thursday that there are currently two main points of concern in the county: high patient totals continuing at local hospitals and ongoing outbreaks at the county’s two jail facilities.
The Main Jail downtown had 135 active inmate virus cases, up from 47 last week; and Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center in Elk Grove, had 146, up from 123, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday in a weekly update to its website.
Infections spiked at the Main Jail after having declined in the previous weekly update. Kasirye said county health officials remain in frequent contact with correctional health officials.
Kasirye has said previously that the county distributes some of its limited allocations of antiviral therapeutics — pills from Merck and Pfizer recently authorized by the Food and Drug Administration — to each jail facility.
The two jails also saw a sharp spike in infections during autumn. An inspector general’s report attributed those outbreaks largely to crowded conditions, low vaccination rates among inmates and relatively lax adherence to mask and social distancing rules by inmates and staff.
Sheriff’s officials in mid-January announced they would release more than 200 inmates early to mitigate the outbreaks.
As for hospitalizations, the county broke its record from the winter 2020 surge — 518 COVID-positive patients in hospital beds — on Jan. 15, and has seen its patient total increase almost every day since then, reaching 657 on Tuesday. The tally did fall to 629 on Wednesday, CDPH data show.
Just over 100 patients were in intensive care units Wednesday, a mark the county has only previously reached during the winter 2020 surge and the delta variant surge. The all-time record is 130, set in January 2021.
Sacramento County hits 1 million fully vaccinated
Rachel Allen, the county’s vaccine program coordinator, said studies recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that full vaccination including a booster dose is 90% effective in preventing hospitalization from the omicron variant of COVID-19.
Allen and Kasirye urged those who have not been vaccinated to do so, and for those who are eligible to get a booster. Residents can get boosted five months after receiving their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or two months after receiving J&J.
Sacramento County recently hit the milestone of 1 million fully vaccinated with either two doses of an mRNA vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to CDPH, which is 69% of its eligible 5-and-older population.
About 1.1 million have had at least one dose, or 75% of eligible residents.
California’s statewide rates are 73% and 82%, respectively.
About 473,000 of the million fully vaccinated Sacramento County residents (47%) have received a booster, state data show, compared to the state average of 53%.
Latest Sacramento-area numbers
Sacramento County has recorded 253,650 total lab-confirmed cases and 2,657 deaths from COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic, according to local health officials.
The county as of Thursday reported the daily case rate at 163 per 100,000 residents, down from an all-time high of 242 per 100,000 recorded 13 days earlier.
According to CDPH, Sacramento County’s latest test positivity rate is 21.9%.
County hospitals were treating 629 patients with confirmed COVID-19 as of Wednesday, up from 615one week earlier. The ICU total has increased to 103 from 96.
Placer County has tallied 55,978 cases and 523 virus deaths to date, last updated Wednesday.
Local health officials last reported the daily case rate at 151 per 100,000 for the week ending Jan. 17.
Placer’s positivity rate is 24%, CDPH reported Thursday.
Placer County hospitals had 247 COVID-positive patients Wednesday, tied for an all-time high and up from 205 one week earlier. The ICU tally increased to 49 from 42.
Yolo County has confirmed 31,510 infections and 270 deaths from COVID-19, last updated Wednesday.
The county’s latest reported case rate is 206 per 100,000, for the week ending Jan. 22.
CDPH reports Yolo County’s positivity rate at 6.1%, the lowest among all of the state’s 58 counties.
Yolo County hospitals were treating 24 patients with COVID-19 on Wednesday, down from 26 one week earlier. The ICU total decreased to five from seven.
El Dorado County has reported 23,866 cumulative cases and 182 deaths from COVID-19, last updated Wednesday.
El Dorado’s latest reported case rate, for the week ending Jan. 19, was 117 per 100,000.
The county had a positivity rate of 22.8%, CDPH reported Thursday.
Hospitals in El Dorado County had 23 COVID-positive patients Wednesday, up from 19 a week earlier. Seven patients were in ICUs, up from six.
Sutter County has recorded 20,060 cases and 210 deaths, and Yuba County has recorded 15,657 cases with 96 deaths, according to a Wednesday update from the bi-county health office.
CDPH reported Yuba County at 168 daily cases per 100,000 and Sutter County at 152 per 100,000 as of Thursday. Positivity was 34% in Yuba and 32.9% in Sutter.
The lone hospital serving Yuba and Sutter counties, Adventist Health and Rideout in Marysville, as of Wednesday had 62 patients with confirmed COVID-19, up from 59 one week earlier. Seven were in the ICU, down from eight.
This story was originally published January 27, 2022 at 11:38 AM.
