Area sees slight decrease in new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations

The Yuba-sutter area hasn’t experienced a surge in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations following the Christmas holiday to the same extent as those experienced in the weeks following Halloween and Thanksgiving. In fact, there’s been a slight decrease recently.

However, Bi-county Health Officer Dr. Phuong Luu said the area has yet to see the full consequences of the New Year’s holiday, and there’s still a significant amount of work to be done before the area can move out of the state’s most restrictive tier.

“We are seeing a glimmer of hope that our case counts and hospitalization cases are decreasing a bit in the past week. However, we are still in the midst of pervasive COVID-19 community transmission, with the case counts still many-fold above the threshold of (less than) seven new cases per 100,000 to move from the purple tier back to the red tier,” Luu said.

Despite the recent improvements, deaths due to the virus continue to occur in the area. One Sutter County resident in their early 80s died over the weekend. No local deaths were reported on Monday. To date, 105

local residents have died due to the virus to date.

The number of COVID-19 cases increased by 61 on Monday, bringing the area’s total to 12,584 cases.

Sixty-five residents were hospitalized as of Monday evening, while 49 people recovered from the virus.

Health officials are encouraging local residents to remain patient as they work to administer COVID-19 vaccines.

“Vaccine rollout is dependent on vaccine supply, which is extremely limited at this time,” Luu said. “Please be patient as we try to rollout the vaccination process in an ever-evolving environment.”