Coronavirus updates: 29 dead in Sacramento area; what California’s flatter growth curve means
The coronavirus has killed nearly 500 Californians among nearly 19,000 infections, with both of those totals continuing to grow, but leaders and health experts say the state’s early stay-home mandate and adherence to social distancing guidelines are working — the pandemic’s growth curve is becoming flatter.
By design, a flatter growth curve means a later peak. While that buys time for the state to prepare tens of thousands of surge-capacity hospital beds, and to procure ventilators for severe patients and personal protective equipment for medical workers, it also likely means a longer timeline for the statewide shutdown.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has recently said state officials expect infection totals to begin to peak some time in mid or late May, based on data models.
“It’s bending, but it’s also stretching,” Newsom said Tuesday.
Health experts have estimated that strict social distancing guidelines and stay-home mandates, such as California’s which went into effect March 19, will need to stay in place for about a month to six weeks after the state’s peak in new cases. Relax those guidelines too soon and the outbreak could simply start back up again.
That means, given the state’s current projections, that nonessential businesses could remain shuttered and gatherings banned through early July, but the timeline remains variable and Newsom has made no promises for when public life might be able to reopen.
Newsom during a Wednesday news conference again declined to give a timeframe for the end of the stay-at-home order.
“When we are closer to that point in time, when we have clarity, I assure you, I look forward to providing those answers,” he said.
Sacramento County on Tuesday officially extended its own stay-home mandate through at least May 1, adding even tighter restrictions on some activities while providing a few new exemptions or adjustments, such as for funerals.
As of Wednesday evening, California had recorded more than 18,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and at least 495 coronavirus deaths, according to a Sacramento Bee survey of figures released independently by county public health departments.
About 2,700 confirmed COVID-19 patients were hospitalized statewide as of Wednesday, with 1,150 of them in intensive care units, Newsom said. As of now, hospitals are not yet overwhelmed by patients, and the state has ventilators for everyone who needs one, officials said at Tuesday’s briefing.
The United States on Wednesday evening surpassed 430,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the highly contagious coronavirus, and nearly 15,000 have died as of Wednesday night, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The global total has surpassed 1.5 million infections, and more than 88,000 fatalities have been reported.
New deaths reported in Sacramento, Placer, Yolo counties
Public health officials in an update late Wednesday morning announced Sacramento County’s 22nd death from COVID-19, with 55 additional confirmed cases also disclosed for a total of 580 infections.
Placer County in the early afternoon announced a fourth coronavirus patient has died and increased the confirmed infection total by two to 117.
Yolo County on Wednesday afternoon reported its third death from complications due to COVID-19. The county reported 11 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, increasing its total to 67, according to data available online.
Sacramento County has also confirmed the general locations for all 22 deaths: 14 in the city of Sacramento, three in Elk Grove, one in Citrus Heights and four in unincorporated areas.
According to the recent update, the county has confirmed locations in all but eight of the cases, a substantial increase in accuracy. Sacramento has had at least 323 of the 580 confirmed cases, unincorporated areas had 107, Elk Grove 59, Rancho Cordova 37, Citrus Heights 21, Folsom 13, Galt six and Isleton just one.
Hospitals express supply concerns in statewide survey
Approximately one out of 10 hospitals across California by the second week of March said they were already gravely concerned about their supply of N95 masks being “exhausted,” according to a California Department of Public Health survey obtained by The Bee obtained through a public records request. Several said at that time they had only enough for the next few days.
Officials were asked how long their cache of equipment would last. The survey asked about their ventilator supply, and requested officials grade on a one-to-five scale their supply of masks, gloves, and gowns for the next eight weeks. A “five” signaled the least concern, while a “one” meant a facility had “exhausted” its options.
Some 300 hospitals that responded to the voluntary survey disclosed their assessment of existing supplies and outlined concerns they had about the looming crisis. At the time of the survey, only about 160 had been infected and two people had died.
In Sacramento, Sutter Medical Center said staff reportedly had exhausted supply options on masks, gowns and ventilators. Face shields and gloves, the hospital said, had no supply chain, were being reused and were in need of replacing, resulting in a “two” on the scale.
Renee Altaffer, a trauma and intensive care nurse and union leader at Sutter Roseville Medical Center, said the hospital had been discussing shortages since February.
“The management and some of the physicians were going around, ‘Nobody can wear masks anymore. Unless you’re actively taking care of someone who is infected, you can’t just walk around wearing a mask.’ ” Altaffer said.
Northern California hospital approved to test antiviral drug
A North Coast hospital is testing an experimental drug that UC Davis doctors and researchers say saved the life of the Solano County woman who was the first U.S. citizen known to have contracted COVID-19 through community spread.
St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka has joined two national clinical trials of the antiviral drug Remdesivir to treat moderate and severe cases of COVID-19, St. Joseph officials announced Tuesday in the Times-Standard, a Eureka-based newspaper.
Dr. Roberta Luskin-Hawk, an infectious disease physician, worked with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director and point person in the White House’s response to the pandemic, during the AIDS epidemic, St. Joseph officials said in their statement to the Times-Standard.
“The main goal of the trial is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the medication,” Luskin-Hawk said. “We are incredibly fortunate to have the local expertise in Humboldt to facilitate the trials.”
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Mental health concerns, calls to suicide hotlines rise
Two high school students in Sacramento’s Natomas area, a boy and a girl, recently took their lives in separate incidents, administrators learned earlier this week.
Both were high school students. One attended a school in Natomas Unified School District and the went to a school Twin Rivers Unified school, said Natomas Unified superintendent Chris Evans.
The reasons for each were unknown, but Evans and community leaders including Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby said the recent deaths reflect the need for more widespread help and greater resources available to local youth amid the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing shutdown, which has closed school campuses.
Calls to suicide hotlines have increased considerably during the coronavirus pandemic.
WellSpace Health’s Sacramento offices answered 4,713 suicide and crisis calls from across the state in March, compared to 3,375 calls in February. Last year, the crisis line averaged 3,350 suicide prevention calls per month.
Calls from Sacramento increased at a similar rate, and about 9 percent of the callers mentioned the coronavirus.
“Home is not an equal space. School is an equal space. School is safe for everyone,” Ashby told The Bee earlier this week. “Everyone is welcome, and it doesn’t matter what’s going on in life. But school is out and it’s going to be hard on a lot of people.
“Work in general for most of us is a safe place. Home is not. We can’t change that. I can’t just walk inside people’s homes and get them out of domestic violence, but we can remind people that are feeling powerless that there are resources. Reach out to somebody. That’s why it’s important that churches stay open online, and why it’s so important to talk about the future.”
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides confidential assistance to anyone in crisis and their loved ones through a live chat and free 24-hour hotline: 800-273-8255. WellSpace Health operates the Sacramento region’s 24-hour hotline: 916-368-3111 or text HOPE to 916-668-4226.
Latest Sacramento-area numbers: 29 dead, hundreds of cases confirmed
As of early Wednesday, the four-county Sacramento region had reported a total of 793 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 29 fatalities.
Sacramento County reports 580 confirmed cases and 22 deaths. Health officials provided the most recent update at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday.
Placer County reports 117 confirmed cases and four deaths, last updated Wednesday afternoon.
Yolo County reports 67 confirmed cases and three deaths, last updated 5 p.m. Wednesday.
El Dorado County reports 29 cases and no deaths, last updated 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. The county had 10 cases reported in El Dorado Hills and nine in the Lake Tahoe area.
The county on Tuesday released data and a map breaking down infection totals, but not deaths, by ZIP code for each that had at least five confirmed COVID-19 cases.
COVID-19 cases by Zip code
Map: Nathaniel Levine • Source: Sacramento County
World totals: Nearly 1.5 million infected, 83,000 dead
The global total of confirmed cases eclipsed 1.5 million Wednesday evening. The U.S. has more than 430,000 of those cases, and Spain, Italy, France and Germany each had between 100,000 and 150,000 confirmed infections.
The death total has climbed above 88,000 worldwide. Italy has reported the most deaths at more than 17,600, followed by Spain at just over 14,792, the United States at 14,739, France at almost 11,000 and the United Kingdom at over 7,000.
Within the United States, New York remains the COVID-19 epicenter: the state had seen more than 150,000 cases and over 6,200 fatalities as of early Wednesday evening, both more than one-third of the U.S. totals. New York City alone has reported more than 4,500 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.
More than 1,500 have died in New Jersey among 47,000 confirmed cases, and over 900 are dead in Michigan, where 20,000 cases have been reported. Over 650 have died in Louisiana among 17,000 confirmed infections.
What is COVID-19? How is the coronavirus spread?
Coronavirus is spread through contact between people within 6 feet of each other, especially through coughing and sneezing that expels respiratory droplets that land in the mouths or noses of people nearby. The CDC says it’s possible to catch the disease COVID-19 by touching something that has the virus on it, and then touching your own face, “but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
Symptoms of the virus that causes COVID-19 include fever, cough and shortness of breath, which may occur two days to two weeks after exposure. Most develop only mild symptoms, but some people develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal. The disease is especially dangerous to the elderly and others with weaker immune systems.
Sacramento Bee reporters Rosalio Ahumada, Cathie Anderson, Tony Bizjak, Sophia Bollag, Theresa Clift, Joe Davidson, Sawsan Morrar, Jason Pohl, Phillip Reese, Ryan Sabalow, Andrew Sheeler, Darrell Smith and Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks contributed to this report. Listen to our daily briefing:
