Updates on mask use, capacity of hospitals

Coronavirus cases reach 50 in Yolo County

Members of Yolo County’s Board of Supervisors shared a chuckle as they experimented with Zoom virtual backgrounds including a lake scene and outer space before the start of their teleconference meeting Tuesday.

The lighthearted moment was one of few they’ve shared during weekly digital gatherings to discuss the local response to the COVID-19 pandemic among other topics.

As has become accustomed, Public Health Officer Ron Chapman gave an update on the number of confirmed cases reported in the county. As of Tuesday morning there were 50 including one death.

According to the county’s recently launched dashboard, 27 of those cases are in West Sacramento, 10 are in Davis, seven are in Woodland and six are in Winters/unincorporated areas.

Chapman noted that testing is still “a challenge” with backlogs and delays before moving on to speak about the use of masks or face coverings by the general public.

“The Centers for Disease Control is reporting some evidence that the spread of this virus may be occurring in people who have no symptoms,” he began. “There’s a handful of cases and reports on this and it would be somewhat unusual for microorganisms spreading infection. In this case, people who have no symptoms are infected with the virus and have a very low viral load or count of the virus in their body so even though they’re not coughing or sneezing they appear to be potentially spreading the virus.

“Because of that evidence, the CDC recommended that week that the public consider face coverings. homemade marks, bandanas,

scarves that cover nose and mouth and might help prevent the spread that could be occurring in people with no symptoms,” Chapman explained. “I think it’s important to point out that those face coverings would not protect people from getting an infection.”

Chapman advised residents not to use surgical or N95 masks as “those are in very short supply and are reserved for the healthcare providers and first responders who are putting their lives on the line to take care of all of us.”

Still, people need to be staying home as much as possible and practicing social distancing when performing essential activities.

Brian Vaughn of the county’s Health and Human Services Agency mirrored Chapman’s sentiment on masks, saying that for area hospitals, personal

protective equipment like face masks and ventilators are “becoming much, much harder to come by.”

“That said, our hospitals have not run out yet and have supplies in the facilities,” Vaughn said. “We are maintaining a cache as well but it’s hard to replenish right now.”

He went on to acknowledge that should a surge of cases happen, there may “be issues” acquiring enough PPE.

For now, however, hospitals do have enough space and product to properly care for individuals.

“Last week, I was somewhat cautiously optimistic regarding our hospital numbers and feeling like the social distancing was working and reemphasizing that,” Vaughn stated. “I said in the next week or two we would know more so I’m very, very happy to report that our hospital numbers

are still consistent with where they were last week. We continue to have a lot of capacity with plenty of area to surge should we need to.”

He clarified that social distancing still needs to be in play for several weeks to “hold these gains.”

According to Vaughn, local hospitals have a roughly 100-bed capacity and if a surge occurs could need up to 100 extra beds. A plan has been put in place to accommodate that situation should it arise.

“Staff has been working with our skilled nursing facilities and longterm care facilities and we have identified

an additional 114 potential beds to use for what we’d call a step-down unit for non-COVID patients,” Vaughn said. “If we have to clear the hospitals of nonCOVID cases, we have areas we can put them in.”

For other alternate care sites, he shared that the county is in communication with the state about the use of Sleep Train Arena as a 400bed location to handle overflow of COVID patients in the region. It should be set up in the next two-to-three weeks.

There is also talk of creating a similar 200-bed site in Placer County, Vaughn said.