Coronavirus taking toll on Central Valley

Governor sending strike teams, $52M in funds to region

STOCKTON — Nearing the end of one of the most disheartening months for California’s coronavirus response, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday once again implored Californians to take the pandemic seriously during a news conference at Stockton’s Diamond Nuts, and announced the state is sending three coronavirus strike teams and $52 million in federal money to California’s Central Valley as the region battles a spike in COVID-19 cases.

California is now averaging 9,859 new cases per day — its highest level yet. Hospitals and intensive care units across the state are filling up. The state’s average deaths per day rose from 91 last week to 109 on Monday. And the governor’s “watch list” of counties showing concerning coronavirus trends, which once included a small fraction of the state, has grown to 37 counties that consist of 93% of the state’s population.

“What more evidence do you need than that about how deadly this disease can be?” Newsom said during his daily news briefing, livestreamed from the Diamond facility in Stockton on Monday. “Please, let’s wake up to that reality.”

Meanwhile, California health officials are no longer encouraging everyone who wants a test to get one because of testing shortages and delays, said Dr. Gil Chavez, co-chair of the state’s testing task force. Currently, it can take nearly two weeks to get results from a test for COVID19.

Of particular concern are the eight counties that make up the state’s Central Valley.

The rate at which coronavirus tests are returning positive results in the Central Valley range from 10.7% to nearly 17.7% — far higher than the statewide average of 7.5%, according to the state’s data. Many of the hospitals in the region have requested additional staffing from the state to

help meet surges in their facilities, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Newsom announced Monday that the state will provide $52 million to help support the hard-hit region. The money — part of a $199 million federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant — will be used to improve quarantine and testing protocols and hire more health care workers.

The Valley region is seeing the virus spread particularly among Latinos, essential workers and people who live in group settings like jails and nursing homes. The state will have a “laser-like focus” on stemming spread among those groups, Newsom said.

The funding from a federal grant will help bolster testing in eight counties that make up the Central Valley, as well as pay for more supplies and additional support for the medical system, Newsom said.

The strike teams, like those sent to hard-hit Imperial County, will include administration officials and community groups who work to stem the spread of the coronavirus, Newsom said. Specifically, the teams will assess outbreaks in factories, nursing homes, high-density housing and agricultural settings.

In some parts of the Valley, transmission rates are escalating at a concerning rate, said Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly. Some hospitals in the region are overwhelmed, with two-thirds of some ICUs filled with COVID-19 patients, he said.

Ghaly and the governor spoke from Stockton, a city that’s driving the increase in cases in San Joaquin County. The eight counties targeted by state officials are Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Tulare and Stanislaus counties. All have test positivity rates between roughly 11% and 18%, which is above the state’s goal of 8%.

One of the world’s most productive agricultural regions,

the Central Valley is home to a large Latino population, many of whom are essential workers who have not been able to stay home during the coronavirus outbreak.

Over the past two weeks, intensive care units in San Joaquin County reached full capacity, Air Force medical staff reinforced a Stockton and Lodi hospital overwhelmed by the outbreak, and members of the National Guard conducting a testing site in Galt.

The focus on the Central Valley comes after months of attention largely on Los Angeles, home to a quarter of the state’s population and a coronavirus hot spot, and the Bay Area, which implemented some of the nation’s strictest shutdown measures. In the early weeks of the pandemic, rural California wasn’t hit as hard as more urban areas.

The Monday announcement came days after Newsom pledged to do more to help California’s Latinos, who are the majority of workers in many essential jobs in the heavily agricultural Central Valley.