El Dorado promoted to orange reopening tier while statewide coronavirus numbers stay low
El Dorado County was promoted to the orange reopening tier on Tuesday, according to data provided by the state.
The move will allow less strict capacity limits for establishments including restaurant dining rooms, gyms and movie theaters, as well as a few types of indoor entertainment businesses to reopen that had to stay closed in the red tier, such as bowling alleys.
Those changes will take effect Wednesday, according to the state and county.
“This relaxing of restrictions on our businesses and residents is a much-needed boost to those who have struggled for more than a year, including those who own the impacted establishments, those who work there and customers alike,” El Dorado County spokeswoman Carla Hass said. “However, with several variant strains of the virus circulating throughout the country, neighboring counties and two in El Dorado County, it remains important that our residents and visitors continue to wear masks and remain physically distant as indicated by health officials even as we continue moving away from the height of the pandemic.”
The three criteria for advancing from red to orange are a daily case rate below four per 100,000 residents, an overall test positivity rate below 5% and positivity below 5.2% in the county’s lowest HPI quartile ZIP codes, all for two straight weeks.
El Dorado recorded a test positivity rate of 2.5% for the most recent week counted by the state, allowing the advancement into orange within the tier framework, which was introduced in late August. El Dorado, along with Placer County, entered the orange tier for a few weeks last fall, but was later demoted back to the purple tier. Sacramento County has yet to advance to a tier looser than red, which it rejoined last week.
County health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye during a weekly news briefing March 25 said “probably sometime late April” would be her best guess for when the county could move to orange, though she said a variety of factors could change that timeline.
Cases have trended up slightly in Sacramento County. On its own health dashboard, Sacramento’s seven-day case rate was reported at 7.2 per 100,000 for the week ending March 20, but rose to 8.3 per 100,000 five days later and remained at 8.2 per 100,000 as of Tuesday.
CDPH also looks at COVID-19 numbers on a longer delay than most counties do, to account for possible data reporting errors, so the recent increase may be reflected in next week’s update from CDPH.
All four of those capital region counties, along with the vast majority of California, were demoted back to the purple tier in a mid-November rollback, responding to the start of the winter surge.
Over the past few weeks, a majority of the state’s counties have departed the purple tier as California’s COVID-19 numbers rebound from the surge. On Tuesday, San Joaquin County was promoted to the red tier, leaving only Inyo and Merced counties in the purple tier.
Soon, all of the tiers will be done away with as the state prepares to lift most COVID-19 restrictions in June.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that if the state has a sufficient supply of vaccines and hospitalizations are low enough, the economy will fully reopen June 15. Newsom also said Californians will still need to wear masks and they will continue to be encouraged to get vaccinated.
No counties in the state were demoted Tuesday while Contra Costa, Humboldt, Mendocino, Monterey, Riverside, San Benito, San Bernadino, San Diego, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Tulare and Ventura counties were all promoted to the orange tier.
First case of B.1.351 variant detected in Yolo County
The UC Davis Genome Center identified the first known case of the B.1.351 variant of COVID-19 in Yolo County, Healthy Davis Together announced Tuesday. The community’s free COVID-19 test operations identified the patient through a PCR test and have begun contract tracing while the Davis adult isolates.
The B.1.351 variant, which was first detected in South Africa last October, is more contagious, with a 50% higher transmission rate. Research has not provided strong evidence that the effectiveness of three approved COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. is negatively affected by variants, but laboratory evidence suggests efficacy may be impacted. The B.1.351 case detected in Yolo County was in an unvaccinated adult.
“The detection of the B.1.351 variant is concerning given its high transmissibility and studies in the lab that show that vaccines may not work as well against this variant,” Aimee Sisson, the Yolo County public health officer, said in a news release.
The UC Davis Genome Center genotypes all positive samples as found by Healthy Davis Together, allowing for the earlier detection of the B.1.1.7 variant in early February.
UC Davis vaccinating anyone over 15 years old
UC Davis Health in Sacramento announced Monday it will start opening appointments Tuesday for anyone age 16 and older to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine.
That makes the local health system the first in Sacramento to essentially expand virus inoculations to the entire adult population.
The state of California has instructed counties to do the same beginning April 15. Most vaccinations are reserved for people 50 and older, and people will underlying health conditions.
UC Davis made the announcement on its Facebook page Monday night. The shots are available to UC Davis Health patients, as well as to non-patients.
UC Davis Health patients can schedule at https://ucdavis.health/3sOOR7o. Those who are not already UC Davis Health patients can schedule at https://ucdavis.health/3mjLItY.
The appointments will be available as vaccination doses are available, UC Davis said.
As vaccinations expand to more Californians, new cases of COVID-19 remain low in the state.
California numbers strong, but surges surface elsewhere
California is attempting gradual reopening from coronavirus closures, which have now been in effect in varying forms for more than a year in response to the highly contagious disease.
The state is doing so as hundreds of thousands of residents are vaccinated against the virus on a daily basis, and as the state boasts one of the lowest infection rates in the U.S.
A New York Times database showed California with the fourth-lowest case rate per capita over the past week of any state, higher than only Arkansas, Kansas and Alabama.
California’s test positivity rate, reported Tuesday by CDPH at 1.6% for the preceding week, continues to decline from an already-record low since testing began. That rate is almost half the positivity rate from the previous period between surges, in October, when it bottomed out at 3%.
However, at the national level, federal officials expressed concern last Monday about a surge that is developing quickly across several states. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, came close to tears as she spoke of “impending doom” and progress fighting the pandemic being undone.
“I am asking you to just hold on a little longer,” she said.
With about 60% of California adults still not having received a first dose of vaccine, the Golden State is by no means in the clear from another spike or surge in cases.
Because older adults have been known since the earliest weeks of the pandemic to be far more vulnerable to the disease than younger populations, health officials are hopeful that even if another surge in cases does develop, hospitalizations and deaths will not spike as dramatically as previous surges.
California’s hospitals are in fairly good shape. CDPH reported Tuesday there were about 2,005 patients hospitalized with confirmed cases of COVID-19 including 507 in intensive care units, down from winter peaks of about 22,000 hospitalized and almost 5,000 in ICUs.
The latest reported ICU total is California’s lowest in almost a full calendar year — dating back to late March 2020.
As they have done on many occasions during previous periods of reopening, and with yet another major holiday approaching in the form of Easter this coming Sunday, local health officials in the Sacramento region are preaching vigilance and adherence to health protocols.
“When we get impatient with COVID is when we get into trouble,” Yolo County health officer Dr. Aimee Sisson told The Bee earlier this month.
To date, more than 3.56 million Californians have tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 57,788 have died from the virus, according to CDPH.
Latest vaccine numbers
Health officials and governments are also expecting a substantial ramping up of vaccine supply in April and hope that this will help avert another surge.
In major expansions, Californians ages 50 and older became eligible for the vaccine starting last Thursday, and all Californians 16 and older will become eligible April 15, CDPH says.
CDPH reported Monday that providers statewide have administered nearly 19.9 million doses to date, about 81% of the 24.5 million doses delivered by manufacturers.
More than 7.34 million are now fully vaccinated in California, with an additional 5.93 million partially vaccinated, CDPH says. That means approximately 22.7% of California’s adult population is fully vaccinated, and 41% of California adults have had at least one dose.
California received more than 2.1 million total doses last week from the three authorized manufacturers — Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Moderna — with the expectation that the state could be hitting 3 million doses a week by May or early June, Newsom said in a news conference in late March.
Sacramento area: Six-county case load passes 158,000
The six-county capital region of Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, Sutter and Yuba counties has reported more than 158,000 lab-confirmed cases and at least 2,342 virus deaths over the course of the pandemic.
Sacramento County has reported 98,848 cases and 1,617 resident deaths from COVID-19. The county has reported 14 deaths in the past week, compared to 21 deaths the previous week.
The countywide hospitalized total has fallen, from 97 reported March 30 to 91 on Tuesday, according to state data, with the ICU total rising from 20 to 22.
Placer County health officials have confirmed a total of 21,188 infections and 277 deaths. Placer has reported five deaths in the past week, down from 24 the previous week.
State data on Tuesday showed 35 virus patients in Placer hospitals including six in ICUs, up from 27 and six compared to one week earlier.
Yolo County has reported 13,314 total cases and 198 deaths. The county confirmed two deaths in the past week, down from five the previous week.
Yolo had two hospitalized virus patients as of Tuesday’s state data update, including one in an ICU, down from six hospitalized and two in ICUs on March 30.
El Dorado County has reported 9,514 positive test results and 108 deaths. The county reported one new death in the past week, up from no reported deaths in the previous week.
State data on Tuesday showed El Dorado with no hospitalized virus patients, down from two patients, both in ICUs, in the previous week.
In Sutter County, at least 9,197 residents have tested positive for the virus and 102 have died. Officials have not reported any deaths in the past week.
Yuba County, which shares a health office with Sutter, has reported 6,041 infections and 40 dead. Yuba also has not reported any deaths in the past week.
The lone hospital serving the Yuba-Sutter bi-county region — Adventist-Rideout in Marysville — had six hospitalized virus patients as of Tuesday’s update, up from four on March 30, with the ICU total still at one.
This story was originally published April 6, 2021 at 12:06 PM.