COVID-19 deaths climb to 40

Five added to county dashboard after weekend

OROVILLE » While overall COVID-19 cases appear to be on the decline following a surge in August lasting into September, the death rate is not.

Butte County Public Health’s COVID-19 dashboard updated on Monday afternoon to reflect five additional deaths due to complications from the virus, increasing the number to 40 of people who have lost their lives to date.

All five were over the age of 75. Consistent with what local and national health officials have said about the virus, this age group has been the most at risk, with 31 of the county’s 40 deaths falling into this age group. With 183 cases to date, the mortality rate among people over the age of 75 is 16.9%.

Seven deaths have now been reported in the month of September, including three on Sept. 10 and one on Sept. 11. The county saw 22 deaths during August.

Butte County Public Health does not report a date of death due to the virus until the department receives a death certificate that confirms COVID-19 as the underlying cause. The amount of time between the date and the processing of a certificate can vary greatly in each case.

Meanwhile, Butte County had 32 new cases between its last update on Friday, Sept. 18 and Monday, according to its dashboard, with 26 in Chico, five in Oroville and one in Durham.

Those new cases marked another downward trend in cases for the second week in a row. The county reported 362 new cases between Aug. 25 and 31, before hitting another 435 cases between Sept. 1 and 7. The following seven-day period, Sept. 8-14, had 131 new cases. Now, as of Monday, the Sept. 15-21 week had 128 new cases.