Sacramento, statewide COVID cases falling — but more counties reach high level of spread
COVID-19 case rates fell statewide this week, although positivity rates continue to grow. And the virus appears to be loosening its hold on the capital region, at least temporarily as nearly every metric — case rate, positivity rate and hospitalizations — dropped over the past week in Sacramento County.
The California Department of Public Health on Tuesday reported the statewide case rate at 35.8 cases per 100,000 residents, down 13% from the previous week.
California’s positivity rate, meanwhile, has continued to rise. It hit 11.4% this week, up significantly from 9.1% the previous week.
Unlike the state as a whole, most Sacramento-area counties have seen drops in positivity rates as well as case rates. In Sacramento County, the positivity rate is 12.4%, down from 13.7% the previous week. In Placer County, the positivity rate is 11.3%, down from 12.3% last week, and in El Dorado County, the positivity rate is at 11.8%, down from 12.5%.
Yolo County bucks the Sacramento-area trend, as it has saw a rise in both its positivity rate and case numbers since a week ago. Its positivity rate still remains one of the lowest in the state, at 6.4% — up from 5.4% the previous week.
Although the decrease in cases is cause for optimism, it comes as new omicron subvariants are on the rise and more California counties are being designated as areas of high spread.
More California counties reach ‘high’ spread
Sacramento County remained in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s high “community level” of spread for the third consecutive week, based on CDC data released Thursday.
Beyond Sacramento, 17 other California counties were deemed areas of high spread, up from 13 total the previous week. Some of Sacramento’s neighboring counties — Placer and Yolo — were already in the CDC’s high designation. El Dorado, which had teetered to medium risk last week returned to high.
Five additional counties — Sonoma, Santa Clara, San Benito, Monterey and Del Norte — re-entered the high designation for the second time in three weeks, after falling to medium community spread levels last week.
Four counties hit the high level for the first time of the current case surge: Butte, Kings, Fresno and Madera.
Other counties in the high risk category were Alameda, Contra Costa, Lake, Napa and Solano, Lake.
Although all 18 counties with the high designation are advised by the CDC to implement indoor mask mandates, so far only Alameda County has done so.
New subvariants continue to rise
The BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants — deemed by the CDC as “variants of concern” — continue to grow nationwide and in the California area.
The two versions of omicron have generated some concerns internationally due to their potential to be more transmissible than the original variant. Last week, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said that “the growth advantage reported for BA.4 and BA.5 suggest that these variants will become dominant … probably resulting in an increase in COVID-19 cases in coming weeks.”
In the United States, new data released by the CDC for the week ending Saturday found that BA.4 and BA.5 now make up 34.9% of all COVID cases.
The new total marks a 61.6% increase from one week earlier, when the subvariants made up 21.6% of cases nationwide.
For the first time this week, the individual percentages of BA.4 and BA.5 cases — 11.4% and 23.5% respectively — surpassed the BA.2 subvariant, which now makes up 9.1% of nationwide cases. The BA.2.12.1 subvariant remains the largest, at 56% of all cases.
The delta variant and earlier omicron subvariants have all but disappeared.
In the CDC region containing California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and island territories, the BA.4 and BA.5 variants are even more prevalent, making up 35.7% of all cases. This is a significant increase from 21.1% a week earlier and from 13.1% the week before.
BA.2.12.1 makes up 52.7% of cases in the region, and BA.2 makes up 11.5%.
The new variants have been identified in the Sacramento area. Healthy Davis Together, one of the only Northern California COVID-19 surveillance programs that tests for BA.4 and BA.5, last reported the two subvariants making up 21% of Yolo cases that were sequenced during the week ending June 11, compared to 13% the week of June 6 and 6% the week of May 28.
Sacramento-Area numbers
Sacramento County’s latest case rate — reflecting the week ending in June 13 — is 36.8 per 100,000 residents, state health officials said in Tuesday’s update. This marks a 16.4% decrease from the case rate one week ago, and an 8.2% decrease from the most recent metric released Friday.
Hospitals in Sacramento County were treating 192 COVID-19 patients on Monday, according to state data, down by 8.6% from 210 one week earlier. The intensive care unit total was 21, up one from last week.
Placer County’s latest case rate is 26.5 per 100,000 residents, a 9.9% decrease from one week earlier.
Hospitals in Placer County were treating 76 virus patients Monday, down from 86 one week earlier. The ICU total held at seven.
Yolo County’s latest case rate is 46.7 per 100,000 residents, an 18% increase from one week earlier. It has the fourth-largest case rate of any California county.
Hospitals in Yolo County were treating three virus patients Monday, down from four a week ago. The ICU total rose to two from none.
El Dorado County’s latest case rate is 23.4 per 100,000 residents, a 19% decrease from one week earlier.
Hospitals in El Dorado County were treating six virus patients Monday, down from eight a week earlier. The ICU total remained at one.
Sutter County’s latest case rate is 26.2 per 100,000 residents, down 5.4% from last week, and Yuba County’s is 32.1 32.4 per 100,000, down 1%, state health officials reported Tuesday.
The only hospital in Yuba County, which serves it and Sutter counties, was treating 18 virus patients Monday, double the total of nine from a week earlier. The ICU total rose to five from one.
This story was originally published June 21, 2022 at 2:48 PM.