Health officer reminds residents of importance of wearing tight-fitting masks

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that exposure to potentially infected droplets significantly decreased while wearing a tightly fitted mask, according to Bi-county Health Officer Dr. Phuong Luu.

She said that can mean two masks (a cloth mask covering a surgical mask) or a surgical mask with knotted ear loops that fits tightly preventing droplets from escaping on the side of the face.

“Whether you choose to wear one or two, it’s important that the mask is tight fitting and covers your nose, mouth, and chin,” Luu said.

The fourth county-sponsored vaccine clinic is today and Luu said nearly 1,000 slots have been filled.

“The remaining doses will be given to one of our partner healthcare facilities who did not get an allocation this week previously from the county to administer to the 65+ patients,”

Luu said.

Walk-ins are not allowed and residents 65 and older should check the county websites each Wednesday at 9 a.m. with a new registration link.

Sutter County has a case count of 36.3 new cases per 100,000 daily and a test positivity of 12.7 percent. Yuba County has a case count of 24 new cases per 100,000 daily and a test positivity of 10.7 percent, according to Luu.

“I am encouraged by the steady decrease in numbers,” Luu said. “We still have some way to go in order to qualify for the less restrictive red tier, but this is promising.”

She said it’s important the area continues on this track as the more contagious UK variant is already in the region. As of Friday, no cases in Yuba-sutter have been linked to any of the variants. Luu said testing for the variant requires a sophisticated process including a whole genome sequencing in a specialized lab. She said Bi-county Health would most likely refer possible variant samples to the state’s public health lab.

“I have asked the Yuba-sutter medical community to be vigilant and if there are any COVID-19 cases that would be good candidates for special testing for the virus variant, to notify the health department,” Luu said.

Cases increased by 34 on Friday, bringing the total number of cases to 14,239. As of late Friday, 45 people remained hospitalized and 41 recovered from the virus. There are 550 active cases.

One local death was reported on Friday – a total of 129 have died from the virus to date.

For more information, visit bepreparedyuba.org or bepreparedsutter.org.