Crunching the numbers
Household contacts the leading source of COVID-19 spread in Yuba-sutter
It looks like household contacts was the leading source of COVID-19 spread in Yuba-sutter, followed by workplace contacts, according to data provided by the BiCounty Health Department.
There are a lot of numbers involved in pandemic response. Following are some findings provided by the department and it’s contact tracing team:
– There have been nearly 4,000 new cases of COVID-19 throughout the Yuba-sutter area just since the beginning of September, and the numbers continue to grow by the day – in recent days, daily increases have been in the triple digits.
Sept. 1 is when both counties transitioned their dashboards to the state’s data management platform, CALCONNECT.
As of Tuesday evening, Sutter County had 2,351 COVID-19 cases, while
Yuba County has had 1,374, according to the latest tracing data.
“Daily case counts continue to be very high, but perhaps most staggering is how
quickly the number of hospitalized has jumped: there are currently 51 residents hospitalized because of COVID-19 – that’s up nearly 10 from 43 hospitalized on Sunday; 36 hospitalized on Friday; and 32 hospitalized one week ago on Wednesday,” said BiCounty Health Officer Dr. Phuong Luu.
“There have also been five deaths in a one-week period, and we haven’t even begun to see cases/ hospitalizations/deaths related to Thanksgiving gatherings yet.”
– Earlier in the pandemic, transmission was being traced to large bunches in specific groups, but those categories have broadened in recent months.
The largest contributor to local transmission has been gatherings among family and friends, which has led to at least 131 positive cases in the area since the beginning of September. School-affiliated and religious service-affiliated gatherings have contributed to 43 cases. A total of 140 positive cases have been traced back to other events or gatherings not associated with the previous categories, which includes local businesses.
Of the total cases, 345 people had reported attending a large gathering within the prior 14 days.
– At least 1,272 people were reported as close contacts to those that tested positive for COVID-19. The largest category was household contacts, which accounted for 722 close contacts. Work contacts were the next largest category with 145 close contacts, followed by 85 community contacts. There were also 33 instances of healthcare and school contacts.
– Tracing numbers don’t show the whole picture, though, as trace investigators have run into difficulties getting some community members to participate or provide information.
“Not all cases answer when we try to contact them. Some are very challenging conversations, with certain individuals being angry and upset with our contact investigators,”
Luu said. “When asked about possible sources of exposure, many cases are not forthcoming – unwilling to ‘out’ their loved ones and friends, and businesses where they might have been exposed/infected.”