Coronavirus updates: How COVID-19 fatigue is affecting Sacramento
Now nine months and counting into the coronavirus pandemic, fatigue is starting to set in.
The endless slog of public health orders have been difficult to keep up with and despite the surge of infections as the winter holidays draw near, Californians are getting restless.
Old Sacramento has been a popular destination during the pandemic and, on Saturday afternoon, it reflected the malaise of the times.
Mostly masked, yet still determined to spend a day outside, plenty of people could be seen sitting down and eating meals at tables around town.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s most recent stay-at-home order bans in-person dining in Greater Sacramento and most of the state — but restaurateurs weren’t to blame.
At Railroad Fish and Chips, guests were being served takeout orders — in keeping with the new orders — but customers were happily finding a comfortable spot to eat among the plethora of seating options in Old Sacramento anyway.
That’s the conundrum many small-business owners now face: they want to comply with health orders but also can’t police their customers, especially when they’re grateful to have any at all in this economy.
Marie Sibrian, co-owner of the Brannan Manor restaurant, said people from other restaurants will even carry off their takeout orders to come sit at nearby tables, ignoring signage that indicates no in-person dining.
“We can’t control the sidewalks right now,” Sibrian said. “Our hands are tied.”
It’s a tough balance to strike, she said — especially when she’s already got a business to run and employees to pay.
“There’s no straight across the board right or wrong right now,” she Sibrian said. “I have some very, very cautious people come in, and they won’t touch our menus, and I have some that are completely oblivious and just go about their business.”
One heartening thing she sees is that mask use has become more or less normalized. And that’s no small feat, but it took a while to become broadly adopted.
Hopefully, she said, other habits are slowly being formed.
“I think people should play by the rules,” she said.
And most people — judging by the high mask-use rate among the crowds — want to play by the rules.
But they also want to stretch their legs.
“Just to get out of the house” — that’s partly why Katrina Kaihe was willing to hang around Old Sacramento while local intensive care units fill to the brim with COVID-19 patients.
“We don’t get next to people. We keep our distance with everyone,” Kaihe said, admitting that she wasn’t terribly comfortable getting too near others amid a pandemic.
Brenda Angel, who was sitting down to eat with her three children, one of whom, like her, is immuno-compromised, said it should be fine since no one else was around her table.
They’re vigilant in their mask usage because of their compromised immune systems, but a special occasion called for a little celebration outside of the home.
“Today’s my birthday, and they’re stuck in the house,” Angel said, referring to her children. “Get out the house, walk around — when we walk around, of course, we wear our masks.”
More businesses break the rules
House of Oliver, a Roseville restaurant and wine bar with a record of flaunting public health orders, has made another show of bravado, refusing to shut down indoor and outdoor in-person dining despite the latest round of economic restrictions which forbid it.
Matthew Oliver, the restaurant’s owner, previously backed down after threatening to break a curfew put in place to limit activity past 10 p.m.
Representatives from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control threatened to fine the restaurant in late November if it stayed open late, changing Oliver’s tune from one of bravado to compliance.
But Oliver is back at it again. Now, following Newsom’s latest regional stay-at-home order, which is active in the Greater Sacramento region, he has kept in-person dining available at his restaurant.
In a video uploaded to the restaurant’s official Facebook page on Friday, Oliver referred to ABC representatives as “intimidating” and “bullying.”
He said the ABC made another visit to House of Oliver and additionally made several calls to the restaurant over its refusal to comply with latest California health guidelines.
Oliver pled ignorance: “We’ve never been given those guidelines — neither have you,” he said, addressing his viewers.
“We have yet to receive a citation, a certificate, a fine,” he said. “We are going to continue to lead the charge for freedom.”
Recently, a Placer County basketball game was linked to dozens of infections, and on Saturday, a Granite Bay dance studio rolled the dice on becoming the site of a similar event.
Tricks, a youth gymnastics and dance studio with three locations in the region, held an indoor mask-optional winter dance recital with invitations sent out to dozens of families.
The recital was held in-person despite Newsom’s stay-at-home order limiting gyms and studios to outdoor-only functionality. All three studios — Granite Bay, Folsom and Sacramento — were consolidated to performance at the Granite Bay site, although Tricks management did set a limit of only four classes performing together at a time.
Local COVID-19 data
Newsom’s latest stay-at-home order triggers based on regional hospital ICU capacity, which has been shrinking rapidly over the past few weeks. Only Northern California has enough capacity to avoid the greater economic restrictions, with 22.4% of all ICU beds open to patients.
On Thursday, the Southern California region maxed out its ICU capacity, and the San Joaquin Valley region dropped back down to maximum capacity on Friday.
Greater Sacramento on Saturday bounced back to 15% capacity. The restrictions, however, will until at least Dec. 31.
On Wednesday, the Bay Area region dropped below that threshold, reaching 12.2% ICU capacity on Saturday. Statewide, only 2% of all ICU beds are available.
All over the state, more than 16,400 people are hospitalized with confirmed cases of coronavirus, 3,523 of whom are being treated in ICUs. At the height of summer, the highest number of people in hospitals for COVID-19 was a little more than 7,000.
The state has 1,284 ICU beds available, a number that has been steadily declining since mid-October, when more than 3,000 beds were still open.
California also continues to break daily infection records, as health officials reported a whopping 53,711 infections on Tuesday and 52,281 on Wednesday. A sudden jump came this week after Monday’s report of 32,326 infections. On Friday, an additional 43,608 cases were reported, according to data from the California Department of Public Health. The state’s average test positivity rate from the last seven days was 12.9%
All told, about 1.81 million Californians have been infected with coronavirus and 22,432 have died of COVID-19.
Another record was set in terms of daily deaths on Wednesday, when 379 people were reported dead of the virus.
Capital region numbers
Sacramento County has reported a total of 54,003 infections since the onset of the pandemic, and 741 people have died of COVID-19. As in the rest of the state, the infection rate has been rapidly rising as winter approaches.
County health officials reported 1,130 additional cases and 12 deaths Wednesday, followed by 1,003 cases and 16 deaths Thursday. On Friday, 818 new cases and 14 deaths were reported.
Sacramento County has 73 ICU beds available, down from an average closer to 100 earlier in the fall and in late summer, but up from 55 last week. Across the county, 486 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Friday, 108 of whom are being treated in ICUs. The county’s most recent weekly average test positivity rate is 10.6%, up from 10.6% from last week’s data.
Yolo County has reported a total of 6,873 infections and 104 deaths. On Thursday, 70 infections were reported and 167 were reported Friday. Two deaths were reported Thursday and 11 deaths total were reported over the last week.
The county’s most recent weekly test positivity rate is 12.03%, which has risen from less than 4% at the start of October. As of Friday, Yolo County has five ICU beds available, with 11 patients already being treated for the virus in ICUs. In all, 23 people are hospitalized with COVID-19.
Placer County health officials have reported a total of 10,776 infections and 103 deaths. On Friday, 222 new cases and five more deaths were reported. On Wednesday, 250 infections were reported and on Thursday, 582 were reported.
Over summer, the highest daily infection total was just 68, on July 27. Health officials say more than 7,700 of the people with reported infections are likely recovered, which means there are over 3,000 people in Placer County currently sick with coronavirus.
Recent data indicates a weekly positivity rate of 12.5%. Since late September, the average per capita infection rate has soared. Currently, 190 people are in Placer County hospitals with COVID-19 and 28 are in ICUs. The county has 23 ICU beds available.
El Dorado County has reported 4,412 positive test results and eight deaths. In the last week, more than 780 new cases have been confirmed. The current test positivity rate is 12% and the county is also averaging 829 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 people. Health officials say 28 people are hospitalized with the virus, 10 of them in ICUs. State data shows four ICU beds available in El Dorado County.
In Sutter County, 5,449 people have been infected and 43 have died. Of those, 83 were confirmed infected Thursday and three were reported dead. On Friday, 88 more were infected and one death was reported. County health officials reported a daily record for infections with 204 new cases on Dec. 8. Currently 51 people are hospitalized.
Neighboring Yuba County has reported 3,260 infections and 15 dead, with 81 new infections on Thursday and 47 infections plus one death reported Friday. Its daily infection record was broken on Thursday, when 89 people were confirmed to have coronavirus. On Dec. 6, 87 people were confirmed infected. Twenty people are currently in the hospital.
The test positivity rate in Sutter County is 23.7%, and it has reported 98.1 coronavirus patients for every 100,000 people. Yuba County’s test positivity rate is 20.1% and it has 68.6 coronavirus-positive residents for every 100,000 residents.
