Coronavirus updates: California reaches 17,000 COVID-19 deaths; Sacramento County CEO criticized

As California’s key coronavirus metrics remain mostly steady, some at their lowest rates since early spring, focus shifts from the present to the near future: What should be expected in the next few weeks and months, in terms of both COVID-19 activity and economic reopening?

It’s still a complicated question, and answers continue to develop slowly, as California on Wednesday officially surpassed 875,000 confirmed cases and 17,000 reported deaths from the virus, according to state health officials.

On Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly shared the state’s new guidelines for allowing outdoor stadiums and theme parks to open in counties classified within the two less-restrictive tiers in the state’s assessment system, orange and yellow.

It’s a significant announcement, but sweeping impact won’t be immediate, especially considering no Southern California counties are currently in either of those two tiers.

For months, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Ghaly and other health leaders have indicated that these types of large-crowd activities would be among the last to resume in California’s reopening process due to the risk they pose in spreading the highly contagious respiratory disease COVID-19.

Now, the state is suggesting that these venues could safely operate at no more than 25% of their usual maximum capacity, and with other strict rules relating to masks, social distancing and food and drink. Ghaly explained in a news conference why outdoor sports stadiums are considered less risky than amusement parks in terms of coronavirus spread.

The reopening process been a series of essentially continuous adjustments and readjustments, as both scientific knowledge of the novel coronavirus and understanding of the economic impact of large-scale shutdowns become clearer over time.

In a weekly update Tuesday, the state health department demoted Shasta and Riverside counties back to the most restrictive purple tier, while clearing three others for further reopening: Butte and Napa moved from red to orange, and San Francisco entered the least-restrictive yellow tier.

California’s other 53 counties stayed in the same tiers they’d been in the previous week, reflecting the fact that the statewide infection rate has plateaued for more than a month. The rolling two-week average of new daily cases hasn’t fallen below 3,100 or risen above 3,425 since Sept. 17, according to the California Department of Public Health. That’s about one-third the rate observed during the summer peak.

The U.S. is facing a nationwide surge in cases, this one primarily driven by new infections erupting across the Midwest and Great Plains states, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University show.

‘Slogging our way’: Road to a vaccine still a slow one

Monday marked seven months since Newsom’s March 19 issuance of the statewide stay-at-home order, which initially told all Californians to remain at their residences except for essential reasons.

The order has been changed numerous times since then. In May, the state switched to a regional variance model that let counties accelerate further in the reopening process if they demonstrated low levels of COVID-19 spread. That reopening framework was halted, then backtracked in the first half of July when a surge in new cases and hospitalizations swept through California.

Regional reopening paused from then until the end of August, and has since resumed under the new color-coded, four-tier framework.

A little more than seven weeks into this more gradual system, the results have been promising. More than two dozen counties have moved from the most-restrictive purple tier into the middle two tiers, red and orange, and CDPH data don’t appear to show any associating, significant uptick in infection rate at the statewide level.

There have been spikes locally, but as of this week, only Shasta, neighboring Tehama and Riverside counties have had to move backwards in the reopening process due to heightened new infections.

Newsom and his administration have made clear for months that some form of stay-at-home order or similar restrictions will almost certainly need to remain in place until a vaccine is not only available, but can be safely and widely distributed to the general population.

On that subject, the governor made clear in a news conference this Monday that Californians shouldn’t expect a widely available vaccine until well into 2021, and also cautioned that a vaccine “will not end this epidemic overnight.”

“We are going to be, in 2021, slogging our way through the distribution of millions and millions of these doses of vaccine,” he said.

In the meantime, before 2021 even arrives, a number of challenges remain this year. The continuing, modified reopening of K-12 campuses across the state, in-person voting on Election Day and the looming impact of flu season have all prompted health experts to urge diligence from the public.

And cooler weather along with upcoming holidays — from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year’s and other winter observances — will also test adherence to rules prohibiting or discouraging indoor gatherings.

Sacramento County leadership criticized, employees ‘scared’

An indoor meeting of department heads last week in Sacramento County forced some local leaders to quarantine and raised questions about county officials’ adherence to state and local health orders designed to limit spread of COVID-19.

Around 40 to 45 people met last Thursday in an indoor conference room; one of them since tested positive, requiring those sitting closest during the meeting to self-quarantine, The Sacramento Bee first reported Sunday. Many of those in attendance did not wear masks, The Bee learned.

County Executive Navdeep Gill, the top official in Sacramento County government and the one who convened last week’s meeting, has faced particular scrutiny, including calls from Board Supervisors Phil Serna and Patrick Kennedy for the county CEO’s resignation. Gill reportedly did not wear a mask in that meeting, though a county spokesperson said in a written response to The Bee that he was sitting farther away from others in a large conference room.

The union representing county workers also expressed concern.

“If he (Gill) doesn’t require his executives to wear (masks), are they carrying that down in the departments?” said Ted Somera, executive director for United Public Employees.

Sacramento County employs nearly 12,000 county government workers, of whom about 3,000 still have to go to work in person. Data provided to The Bee shows that cases among county workers went from about a dozen as of July 25 to more than 100 by Sept. 18. Roughly half of those cases involved Sheriff’s Office or probation department employees.

One employee at a Department of Human Assistance office in Rancho Cordova, where about 50 employees have resumed in-person work, alleged that the county isn’t closing the office down for deep cleaning despite multiple confirmed cases there.

“Employees are scared,” the county worker, who asked to remain anonymous, recently told The Bee.

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Latest Sacramento-area numbers: Over 36,000 cases reported

The six-county Sacramento region has now combined for 619 reported COVID-19 deaths and over 36,000 confirmed infections.

Sacramento County has recorded a total of 24,957 lab-positive cases and 480 deaths. County health officials added 229 on Tuesday — one of the largest single-day additions in weeks — followed by 146 Wednesday.

The county has now reported at least 22 deaths through the first 16 days of October. Over 100 county residents died in September and nearly 180 in August, according to the local health office.

There were 82 patients in Sacramento County hospitals with confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 22 in ICUs, according to Wednesday’s state data update. The county has 87 available ICU beds.

Sacramento is in the red tier. For this week’s state assessment, which examined numbers from Oct. 4-10, the county had 4.4 new daily cases per 100,000 residents (red tier) and 2.5% test positivity (orange).

Yolo County, which joined Sacramento in the red tier in late September, has reported 3,099 total infections and 58 deaths from COVID-19. Yolo reported two new deaths Wednesday afternoon, including one in Woodland and another in Winters. The county reported 13 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday and 13 Tuesday.

Yolo officials recently reported an outbreak at Alderson Convalescent Hospital in Woodland, the second cluster of COVID-19 cases at the skilled nursing facility since July. To date, at least 58 residents of the 140-bed facility and 16 staff members have tested positive. Four residents died in the July outbreak. It appears one of the new deaths reported Wednesday was from the convalescent hospital, according to the county’s COVID-19 dashboards. The most recent confirmed case of COVID-19 at the convalescent hospital was reported Wednesday.

Yolo has seven patients in hospitals with COVID-19, including three in intensive care.

Yolo in this week’s state assessment had 5.3 new daily cases per 100,000 (red) and 2.6% test positivity (orange) for the most recent state assessment period.

Placer County surpassed 4,000 all-time infections with a Tuesday morning data update and also reported three additional deaths, for an all-time total of 55 fatalities. Tuesday’s addition of 34 cases marked one of the biggest single-day increases for the county since August, but only 11 new cases were reported Wednesday for a new total of 4,023.

Placer says on its hospitalization dashboard that it has 13 patients in hospital beds specifically being treated for COVID-19, including two in ICUs.

Placer is in the orange tier. It reported 3.7 new daily cases per 100,000 and a test positivity of 3.3% in this week’s data table from the state, both remaining in the orange tier.

El Dorado County is one of a small number of counties to have reported deaths below double-digits, with just four since the start of the pandemic. Health officials have reported a total of 1,306 infections after reporting four new cases Wednesday and 12 Tuesday.

No one is hospitalized with the virus in El Dorado, according to state data updated Wednesday.

El Dorado’s new daily cases per 100,000 were 2.1, in the orange tier but just 0.1 shy of the yellow tier, and test positivity was well within the yellow criteria at 1.2%.

Sutter County health officials have reported a total of 1,830 people positive for coronavirus and 12 dead. Sutter reported eight new cases Wednesday afternoon and two Tuesday. Four people were hospitalized with COVID-19 Tuesday, none of them were in the ICU, according to county health officials.

Sutter is in the red tier. It reported 2.7 new daily cases per 100,000 (orange) and 1.9% test positivity (yellow) for the week of Oct. 4-10.

Yuba County officials have reported a total of 1,288 infections and 10 dead. Yuba reported nine new cases Wednesday afternoon, two Tuesday and five new cases Monday. Two patients was hospitalized with none in the ICU Wednesday in Yuba.

Yuba is also in the red tier. For the recent state assessment period, Yuba County had 6.3 new daily cases per 100,000 (red) and 3.3% test positivity (orange).

The Bee’s Rosalio Ahumada, Tony Bizjak, Sophia Bollag, Marcos Bretón, Michael Finch II and Andrew Sheeler contributed to this story. Listen to our daily briefing:

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