COVID updates: Here are California’s case, hospital and vaccine rates as mask orders lift
In most of California, including the entire Sacramento region, masks are no longer required in many indoor public settings for those fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The change took effect Wednesday, as California health officials let a temporary indoor masking order put in place Dec. 15 to combat the omicron variant expire after two months.
Sacramento and Yolo counties announced they would lift their own indoor masking orders, which had been in effect since late July in response to the previously dominant delta variant. Sacramento also on Wednesday lifted an order that had required public meetings to be held virtually.
Other counties in the capital region did not have local health orders in place, meaning they are subject to the state’s loosening mask requirements.
Coronavirus case rates remain above pre-omicron levels but have been declining for more than a month from the peak of the latest surge.
After the statewide daily case rate soared to about 300 per 100,000 residents for the week ending Jan. 10, it has recovered to 46 per 100,000, the California Department of Public Health said in a Wednesday update. It had hovered around 15 per 100,000 in early December, before highly contagious omicron took root as the dominant strain.
Statewide test positivity fell to 5.6%, down from 8.2% the previous Wednesday and from an all-time record high of 22.6% on Jan. 10. Before the omicron wave, positivity had fluctuated between 2% and 2.5% throughout most of October, November and the first half of December.
Virus hospitalizations are also plummeting, now below half the peak of January’s surge. About 7,650 patients were hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 cases Tuesday, CDPH said Wednesday, down from 15,435 on Jan. 21. Just over 1,500 are in intensive care units, down from 2,609 on Jan. 25.
Hospitalizations and ICU cases at the state level fell short of all-time records set during the winter 2020 surge, which saw virus hospitalizations soar to nearly 22,000 and ICU cases reach about 4,900 in January 2021.
Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s Health and Human Services secretary, during a Monday news conference said state health officials’ data projections show COVID-19 hospitalizations could fall below 2,000 sometime around early April. That would be California’s lowest patient load since last July, just before the delta variant took root in the state.
Some counties did break their all-time records during the omicron surge, including Sacramento, which saw as many as 657 COVID-positive patients in hospital beds in January, well above the pre-omicron record of 518.
Sacramento County’s hospital tally dropped to 398 patients as of Tuesday. That included 58 virus patients in intensive care, down from omicron’s peak of 125 on Jan. 21.
California over the course of the pandemic has confirmed about 8.3 million COVID-19 infections. At least 82,382 have died of coronavirus, CDPH said Wednesday.
Sacramento State to keep mask requirement, for now
Though masks are no longer required for the fully vaccinated across the general public, some institutions may elect to keep their own requirements in place.
Sacramento State on Monday announced that despite the changing state and local orders, the campus “has not made any changes to campus policy and continues to require everyone to wear face coverings indoors in public spaces on campus.”
“Our campus COVID-19 task force will meet soon to discuss next steps, but until further notice, all students, faculty, staff, and visitors must continue to mask while indoors,” university President Robert S. Nelsen wrote in a message to the campus community.
Nelsen in another message Tuesday wrote that this task force, “in consultation with local public health officials, will establish a path forward for our campus to begin lifting face-covering requirements for individuals who are fully vaccinated.”
The university already requires full vaccination, absent an exemption, to attend campus. Students, faculty and staff also have received a booster dose, if eligible, by Feb. 28 to remain in compliance with the vaccination requirement.
Where do California vaccine rates stand?
According to CDPH, about 83% of Californians ages 5 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
About 74% are considered fully vaccinated, with one dose of Johnson & Johnson or the initial two-dose series of the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna.
Another 9% have had a first dose of an mRNA and are considered partially vaccinated.
The rates are lower among juveniles, especially younger children. About 65% of adolescents ages 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated, and 73% have had at least one dose. For ages 5 to 11, about 29% are fully vaccinated and 36% have had at least one dose.
Of those who are fully vaccinated and eligible to receive a booster dose, about 56% have done so, or 13.6 million. That means out of all 39.5 million Californians across all age groups, a little more than one-third are vaccinated and boosted.
Data recently broken down by state health officials by three vaccine classifications — unvaccinated, fully vaccinated but not boosted, and vaccinated plus boosted — reflect the high effectiveness of booster doses.
In a Wednesday update, CDPH said unvaccinated Californians were about six times more likely to test positive, 12 times more likely to be hospitalized and 17 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than those who have had a booster.
Latest Sacramento-area numbers
Sacramento County has recorded 274,476 total lab-confirmed cases and 2,847 deaths from COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic, according to local health officials.
The county on Wednesday reported the daily case rate at 36.3 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 8.7%.
County hospitals were treating 398 patients with confirmed COVID-19 as of Tuesday, down from 479 one week earlier. The ICU total dropped to 58 from 93.
Placer County has tallied 61,229 cases and 547 virus deaths, last updated Monday.
Local health officials last reported the daily case rate at 55 per 100,000 for the week ending Feb. 5.
Placer’s latest positivity rate was 8.8%, CDPH reported Wednesday.
Placer County hospitals had 130 COVID-positive patients Tuesday, down from 191 one week earlier. The ICU tally decreased to 24 from 31.
Yolo County has confirmed 34,836 total infections and 289 deaths from COVID-19, last updated Tuesday.
Yolo’s latest case rate was 97.5 per 100,000 for the week ending Feb. 8, the local health office said.
CDPH reported Yolo County’s positivity rate at 2.3%, the lowest among all of the state’s 58 counties.
Yolo County hospitals were treating nine patients with COVID-19 on Tuesday, down from 10 the previous Tuesday. The ICU count declined to one from four.
El Dorado County has reported 26,039 cumulative cases and 193 deaths from COVID-19, last updated Tuesday.
El Dorado’s latest reported case rate, for the week ending Feb. 5, was 26.9 per 100,000.
The county had a positivity rate of 7.8%, CDPH reported Wednesday.
Hospitals in El Dorado County had 21 COVID-positive patients Tuesday, down from 23 a week earlier. The ICU total dropped to three from five.
Sutter County has recorded 21,781 cases and 218 deaths, and Yuba County has recorded 17,112 cases with 100 deaths, according to a Tuesday update from the bi-county health office.
CDPH reported Yuba County at 54 daily cases per 100,000 and Sutter County at 41 per 100,000 as of Wednesday. Positivity was 14.6% in Yuba and 12.7% in Sutter.
The lone hospital serving Yuba and Sutter counties, Adventist Health and Rideout in Marysville, as of Tuesday had 33 patients with confirmed COVID-19, down from 47 a week earlier. The ICU total dipped to 10 from 13.
