Counties are becoming increasingly concerned about the surge in COVID cases. Some counties including Sacramento have been setting record-breaking numbers of COVID cases every day.
Here’s a quick look at some of the counties in our region on December 1:
SACRAMENTO COUNTY:
According to the county’s COVID dashboard, there was more testing underway on Monday, where the COVID cases are also skyrocketing.
Sacramento County’s Public Health Officer, Dr. Olivia Kasirye said, “We are still seeing a surge. We are seeing anywhere from 400 to 500 cases every day being reported. And about 60% of those are in young adults. But we are also seeing outbreaks in long-term facilities as well.”
Public Health Officials also observed a different trend in the age of COVID patients. As schools and businesses are reopening, younger adults are becoming more exposed to the infection.
On Sunday, nearly all travelers at the Sacramento International Airport were wearing masks. Some of these travelers said that they intended to self-quarantine upon returning home, others said they would not be doing so – despite the state recommendations.
So whose job is it to enforce the travel restrictions?
Dr. Kasirye said, “It is dependent on the workplaces to enforce the quarantine.”
“But we are also making a plea to the public that this is for their own good.” she continued.
The increasing cases also put more pressure on businesses and a call to action for everyone to wear masks and avoid public gatherings.
NEVADA COUNTY
The hospital at Sierra Nevada Memorial in Grass Valley has plenty of beds to handle the surge in COVID cases, but that is not what has them worried.
Dr. Brian Evans, chief executive officer of Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital said, “And so what happens is if we see a huge increase in the number of COVID patients we will run out of staffing across the board in hospitals across California before we’ll run out of other things typically. We have plenty of ventilators, plenty of beds, but the nurses are very tight.”
Due to the high demand for nurses, Sierra Nevada is one of just two hospitals in the entire county – where the positivity rate is close to 6.3%.
With the increased travel over the Thanksgiving break, Nevada county is now bracing for the worst according to public health officials.
Health and Human Services Director Ryan Gruver said, “I think a lot depends on what happened over Thanksgiving. If that translates in two weeks’ time to a surge on top of the surge, as Dr. Fauci mentioned, and then 12 days after that we see a surge in hospitalizations, then that translates to around Christmas Eve.”
“So we could be looking at a pretty depressing Christmas for our health care workers and our businesses and other people that would be most impacted by that.” Evans continued.
Director Evans also offered a projection for the weeks ahead:
“We expect the number of COVID cases to increase. We expect that to impact hospitalizations even further.”
YUBA AND SUTTER:
Adventist and Rideout is the one and only hospital for both the Yuba, and Sutter country, and it is also packed with patients.
Yuba County’s information officer, Russ Brown said, “The hospital has one floor dedicated to COVID patients and that floor is pretty much full. We have 39 patients from the two counties in that hospital right now and that number keeps growing.”
“Our ICU is now at a maximum. They actually have no beds left,” Brown added.
Public Health officials are strongly urging everyone to follow state protocols by wearing masks and being socially distanced.
Brown said, “It does fall on the residents. They need to not gather in groups. We are concerned about what we are going to see over the next 2-3 weeks now.”
Brown told KCRA 3 that Sutter County had 168 new cases reported on Monday, shattering a single-day record.
As of Sunday, Yuba County recorded 55 new COVID cases.
YOLO COUNTY
In Yolo County, COVID cases are now averaging 100 a day, and the positivity rate is 9.1%, according to public information officer Jenny Tan.
She told KCRA 3 that Yolo County anticipates the numbers to get even worse.
Tan said, “We are expecting to see a surge from Thanksgiving travel and the holiday in the coming weeks.”
“And we still have Christmas yet to go and we know that people want to gather. They want to celebrate together, but if we can sacrifice this year, then next year we will hopefully all be able to meet again,” she added.
OVERVIEW
This was a look at the conditions of just some counties across the Sacramento region. Many counties are increasingly worried about growing cases,
As of December 1st, 99.1% of California Purple (WIDESPREAD) Tier, which means that most of the schools and businesses aren’t allowed to reopen. The majority of the schools that reopened were closed, however, some are still open.
With the growing number of COVID cases, public health officials are worried that California will face a rough winter.
It is highly recommended that people wear masks when they are outdoors, and maintain social distancing around the public.
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