Coronavirus
Sacramento County slammed with nearly 1,000 coronavirus cases in one day, sounding alarm
In the most troubling moment since the COVID-19 crisis hit, Sacramento County on Tuesday registered by far the highest one-day total of new infections, nearly 1,000, prompting the county’s health chief to sound the alarm.
The virus is now spreading exponentially in Sacramento, county Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said.
“I am really concerned,” she said. “I really am. This will impact our ability to have schools, places of worship and restaurants open. We are looking for state guidance on additional restrictions.”
She urged residents to avoid Thanksgiving get-togethers and to do Black Friday shopping online from home rather than attempt to crowd into stores and malls.
The 957 cases reported Tuesday are far higher than the previous record of 559 set last week, and exponentially higher than the daily totals of 200 and 300 the county was experiencing a month ago. The 957 figure could include some cases that occurred in previous days, but that weren’t registered by the county until Tuesday.
State health chief Dr. Mark Ghaly said the state calculates that 12% of current cases will end up in hospitals in two weeks. That means Tuesday’s infection numbers could match the county’s record number of concurrent patients during the pandemic.
The surge is similar to one being seen in many states around the country as well as, to a lesser extent, other local counties and California as a whole.
State officials on Saturday instituted a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew across most of California. Kasirye said she has been in contact with state health officials in the last few days about what next steps may need to be taken.
Some areas have closed outdoor restaurant dining in recent days, but Kasirye said Sacramento is not planning on doing that unless Gov. Gavin Newsom and state health leaders request it.
Kasirye said the current surge likely got started a month ago when restrictions had been reduced and when many people let their guard down, thinking the virus was subsiding. Instead, she said, the virus made a comeback in part due to Halloween events and increasing numbers of evening gatherings in homes, restaurants and bars that served food, as well as increase spread in congregate care facilities and some workplaces.
There still is no epicenter for virus infections in Sacramento, Kasirye said, but county health officials are noticing more people reporting to workplaces that they have tested positive.
The virus spread is coming faster now because it appears to be broadly spread throughout the county.
“This is what happens when you have (virus) spikes,” she said. “The initial spike was set off by gatherings. As you have more cases, the risk of transmission increases exponentially.”
Kasirye said officials are watching to see the effect of the state curfew, but are prepared to take more steps if needed. Local hospitals are nearing record numbers of patients, and are on alert. State officials said they have Sleep Train Arena ready as an alternative care site if needed.
Ghaly on Tuesday said it is not too late to cancel large holiday plans.
“It’s not too late to make that decision,” Ghaly said. “Call that audible.”
“Together we can stop the surge,” he said. “We’ve done it before. We have the tools to make that turnaround.”
Tier list update sheds light on dire situation in capital region
The state on Tuesday released its latest tier assignments, the first following last week’s rollback that ended with 41 counties in the tightest restriction tier of purple.
While there was relatively minimal movement compared to last week — sparsely populated Colusa, Del Norte, Humboldt and Lassen counties moved to the purple tier — the accompanying data showed COVID-19 activity continuing to skyrocket in many parts of the state, including the more rural parts of the greater Sacramento area.
Though none are nearly back to having the metrics required to depart the purple tier, the three more urban and suburban counties in the capital region — Sacramento, Placer and Yolo — for the most part had their COVID-19 metrics grow slightly compared to last week’s update.
But in more rural El Dorado, Yuba and especially Sutter, the figures continued to explode at alarming rates in mid-November.
The California Department of Public Health assigns tiers based on new daily cases per 100,000 residents and test rate positivity. This week’s update used numbers from the week of Nov. 12 to Nov. 18.
Sutter County for this survey week had the highest test positivity rate among all 58 counties in the state at 16.6%. Yuba was at No. 6 by this metric, at 11.8%. Sutter and Yuba saw these rates grow considerably, up from 10.9% and 8.2%, respectively, for the prior survey week.
And in El Dorado County, which the state reported as having a relatively low 3.3% test positivity last week, it nearly doubled to 6.1%. It had been as low as 1.1% the week ending Oct. 17.
The other three counties had their rates grow a half-percentage point or less in the past week.
Similarly, new cases per capita increased to a slight extent in Placer and Yolo, and even dropped slightly in Sacramento County, though all three are still more than double the purple tier cutoff of seven new cases per 100,000.
But in Sutter County, it nearly doubled, from 21.8 last week to 39.7 this week. Yuba’s case rate went from about 15 to 25 per 100,000. And El Dorado, which for the entire pandemic has fared best of the six Sacramento-area counties by its metrics, had 11.7 new daily cases per 100,0000, up from 8.2 the prior week and 5.8 the week before that, state data show.
Concern is very high in the Yuba-Sutter bi-county region, where higher case totals are translating directly into more patients in hospital beds. The two counties share a public health office and have just one general acute hospital, Adventist Health/Rideout, located in Marysville.
Rideout’s president, Rick Rawson, put out a video statement on Nov. 17 pleading for local residents to adhere to COVID-19 safety advice, as the COVID-19 patient total at his hospital had risen to 20 by that point. It’s nearly doubled since then, up to 36 as of Monday, according to the local health office.
This story was originally published November 24, 2020, 12:37 PM.
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