COVID updates: Newsom again teases ‘endemic plan’ as California counties shift strategy
It may soon be time to “learn to live with COVID-19,” elected California leaders as well as state and local health officials said this week, as they announced plans to loosen mask requirements and other pandemic restrictions.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced the state’s mask requirement for the fully vaccinated in indoor public places, in effect since Dec. 15, will end next Wednesday. Those who are unvaccinated will still be required to wear masks, and masks will remain mandatory in several indoor settings regardless of vaccination status.
Newsom also said, during a news conference Wednesday centered on COVID-19 supplemental sick leave, that he will share more details next week of the state’s “endemic plan,” which will also address mask requirements at K-12 schools.
Health officials in Sacramento and Yolo counties said they will follow suit regarding public indoor masking, planning to end local orders they’ve had in place since July. Most Bay Area counties — all but Santa Clara — also said this week they will lift local mask requirements.
“We must learn to live with COVID-19,” Yolo County health officer Dr. Aimee Sisson said in a statement Wednesday. “Moving away from requiring everybody to wear masks indoors is a first step toward living with COVID-19.”
Sisson still recommends that people wear masks indoors, “but it will no longer be required in most settings for fully vaccinated persons.”
The announcements come as coronavirus numbers crater from last month’s peak of the omicron surge at both the state and local levels.
California’s daily case rate for COVID-19 peaked at 299 per 100,000 residents in early January, according to the California Department of Public Health, but has rebounded to effectively one-quarter of that rate, reported Thursday at 75 per 100,000.
The latest case rate is less than half of the 164 per 100,000 reported the previous Thursday, state data show.
Test positivity in California hit an all-time high of 22.7% on Jan. 10 but has since fallen to 8.6%, according to CDPH.
Both transmission metrics are at their lowest point since the week of Christmas. Omicron took hold as California’s dominant variant around mid-December.
Dr. Tomás J. Aragón, director of CDPH and the state public health officer, in a Monday statement said the omicron variant “has loosened its hold on California.”
Hospitals across the state, which were treating a combined 15,500 COVID-positive patients in late January including 2,600 in intensive care units, as of Wednesday had just over 9,700 patients with about 1,900 in ICUs.
Sacramento County peaked at an all-time high of 657 hospitalized virus patients on Jan. 25 but has seen that tally fall to 447 as of Wednesday, its lowest point in a month.
Yolo County has dropped to 11 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, from 27 at the peak of the omicron wave.
“Learning to live with COVID-19 will involve fewer government mandates and more government recommendations,” Sisson wrote in Wednesday’s rescission order, which will end Yolo’s indoor mask requirement on Feb. 16. “These recommendations will continue to be provided to support members of the public in making individual decisions based on their own risk tolerance.
“Persons with a lower risk tolerance, perhaps because of underlying medical conditions or age, can choose to take additional precautions, such as by wearing masks.”
At the same time, Sisson reiterated: “Ending mandatory masking is by no means a concession that masks do not work. Masks work.”
“Rather, ending the mask mandate is an acknowledgment that mandates are not the only way to support safer behavior, particularly over the long term.”
COVID infections still on decline at Sacramento schools
COVID-19 infections in Sacramento-area schools continue to drop at a significant rate.
Folsom Cordova Unified, in its weekly update on Wednesday, reported 166 active cases among students and staff. That’s a decrease of roughly 100 infections since last week and a large decline since the omicron peak, when the district was reporting nearly 800 active cases.
San Juan Unified reported 563 active cases Thursday morning, a drop of nearly 200 since the start of the week. Even more significant, the district had fewer than 60 new cases on Wednesday, including just one at both Bella Vista and Rio Americano high schools, campuses that had been reporting large spikes in January.
Large drops in cases were also reported in Natomas Unified, Twin Rivers and Sacramento City Unified.
For now, district officials said they would maintain their masking policies.
“San Juan Unified will continue to follow state and local requirements related to face coverings on school campuses,” San Juan Unified spokeswoman Raj Rai said. “Face coverings are currently required when indoors on campuses. Face coverings are encouraged but optional for individuals when outdoors on our campuses.”
Sacramento City Unified spokesman Al Goldberg said “there are no plans to change our health and safety guidelines but will continue to consult with Sacramento County Public Health for additional guidance.”
The district requires students, staff, parents, guardians and other visitors to campuses “to wear a face mask at all times in all settings indoors and outdoors, including on the bus, unless they meet a CDPH approved exemption,” according to the district’s guidelines.
Latest Sacramento-area numbers
Sacramento County has recorded 271,470 total lab-confirmed cases and 2,802 deaths from COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic, according to local health officials.
The county on Thursday reported the daily case rate at 61 per 100,000 residents, plummeting from an all-time high of 245 per 100,000 recorded Jan. 10.
According to CDPH, Sacramento County’s latest test positivity rate is 12.8%.
County hospitals were treating 447 patients with confirmed COVID-19 as of Wednesday, down from 583 one week earlier. The ICU total dropped to 88 from 100.
Placer County has tallied 60,573 cases and 545 virus deaths to date, last updated Wednesday.
Local health officials last reported the daily case rate at 83 per 100,000 for the week ending Jan. 31.
Placer’s latest positivity rate was 14.5%, CDPH reported Thursday.
Placer County hospitals had 163 COVID-positive patients Wednesday, down from 194 one week earlier. The ICU tally decreased to 29 from 45.
Yolo County has confirmed 34,159 total infections and 282 deaths from COVID-19, last updated Wednesday.
Yolo’s latest case rate was 63 per 100,000, according to CDPH.
CDPH reported Yolo County’s positivity rate at 3.5%, the lowest among all of the state’s 58 counties.
Yolo County hospitals were treating 11 patients with COVID-19 on Wednesday, down from 21 one week earlier. The ICU count declined to two from six.
El Dorado County has reported 25,705 cumulative cases and 190 deaths from COVID-19, last updated Wednesday.
El Dorado’s latest reported case rate, for the week ending Feb. 2, was 41 per 100,000.
The county had a positivity rate of 12.1%, CDPH reported Thursday.
Hospitals in El Dorado County had 20 COVID-positive patients Wednesday, ticking down from 21 a week earlier. The ICU total dropped to two from five.
Sutter County has recorded 21,477 cases and 217 deaths, and Yuba County has recorded 16,831 cases with 98 deaths, according to a Wednesday update from the bi-county health office.
CDPH reported Yuba County at 78 daily cases per 100,000 and Sutter County at 70 per 100,000 as of Thursday. Positivity was 21% in Yuba and 16.5% in Sutter.
The lone hospital serving Yuba and Sutter counties, Adventist Health and Rideout in Marysville, as of Wednesday had 42 patients with confirmed COVID-19, down from 83 a week earlier. The ICU total rose to 14 from 11.
This story was originally published February 10, 2022 at 11:21 AM.
