Omicron surge led to one of Sacramento County’s deadliest months of COVID-19 pandemic
More than 230 Sacramento County residents died of COVID-19 in January, making it at least the fourth-deadliest calendar month of the pandemic as the county’s cumulative coronavirus death toll swells toward 3,000.
Local health officials as of Thursday had confirmed 237 virus fatalities from last month, more than double the 96 recorded in December and 92 in November.
Only December 2020 (403 deaths), January 2021 (336) and August 2021 (245) have been deadlier, local health data show.
January 2022 surpassed September 2021, when 225 died in the wake of the delta variant surge; and it could still surpass August 2021 as the county continues to confirm deaths that occurred last month.
The wave of deaths from the omicron surge has continued into February, with 37 fatalities already confirmed for the first 11 days of this month.
“The deaths have picked up,” county health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said during a Wednesday call with reporters.
Kasirye said her office is currently confirming about nine to 10 COVID-19 deaths per day, though a data update Thursday morning added 31 new confirmed deaths to the county’s all-time tally, including 14 from February, 14 from January and three from earlier months.
The health officer said death confirmations can take time, sometimes several weeks or longer after a death.
The omicron variant overtook delta as the county’s and California’s dominant strain of COVID-19 around mid-December, with new infections peaking in the omicron surge around Jan. 10.
Data have shown omicron sends a smaller percentage of infected people to hospitals with severe illness than delta. But as Kasirye and many other health officials warned near the outset of the surge, the variant’s extreme contagiousness worked to offset much of that relative mildness, as evidenced by last month’s high death toll and record-breaking hospital numbers.
Sacramento County’s daily case rate jumped from 31 per 100,000 residents the week ending Christmas to 245 per 100,000 by Jan. 10 — nearly quadruple the pre-omicron record of 63 per 100,000. The rate has since recovered to 35 per 100,000 as of Thursday.
Hospitals in the county were treating 500 or more COVID-positive patients every day from Jan. 13 through Feb. 5, state health data show, peaking Jan. 25 at an all-time record of 657. Virus patients in intensive care units peaked at 125 on Jan. 21, five patients shy of the record from the winter 2020 surge.
The hospital tally as of Wednesday had fallen to 374 COVID-positive patients including 55 in ICUs.
“As we get to the end of this surge, and as we continue to monitor, hopefully we’ll see a continuing decline in our numbers,” Kasirye said Wednesday.
At least 2,878 county residents have died of COVID-19. Sacramento recorded its first COVID-19 death on March 9, 2020.
A large majority of the deaths have come in older residents: at least 1,070 were age 80 or older, 646 were in their 70s and 570 were in their 60s, according to the county’s data dashboard.
At least 324 who have died were in their 50s, 152 in their 40s, 82 in their 30s and 29 in their 20s.
The county has confirmed five deaths among residents who were 19 or younger.
Deaths by vaccine status
A breakdown of the county’s January deaths by vaccination status is not available.
Among 2,728 of the county’s cumulative virus deaths for which vaccination status is known, 94% were not vaccinated, according to the local health office, though many of those fatalities came before vaccines rolled out around the end of 2020.
At the state level, the California Department of Public Health reported about 21 deaths per million among unvaccinated Californians for the week ending Jan. 23, the most recent period with that data available.
That’s 17 times higher than the 1.2 deaths per million among those who had received a booster dose, and eight times higher than the 2.7 deaths per million among those who were fully vaccinated but not boosted.
About 70% of eligible county residents ages 5 and older are considered fully vaccinated, and 76% have had at least one dose, CDPH data show, compared to state averages of 74% and 83%, respectively.
Of fully vaccinated Sacramento County residents, 51% have had a booster, compared to 49% statewide.
