County reports 30 new coronavirus cases Friday

Numbers trend down as reports of saved vaccine appointments bring relief

>> Coronavirus case numbers remained low in Santa Cruz County Friday with 30 new cases reflected on the county’s coronavirus data dashboard since Thursday.

The COVID-19 hospitalization totals remain consistent with Wednesday and Thursday, when the dashboard still showed 12 regular hospitalizations and two ICU hospitalizations. Three more ICU beds became available Friday, bringing the total of open beds to eight or 36% capacity granted the county’s 22 regular ICU beds.

For the first time in several days, the county’s active known case figure went up. However, only two new active cases were recorded while more than 25 formerly active cases were marked as recovered cases.

No new deaths were reported Friday, but four new deaths were reported Thursday — one year to the day since the county declared COVID-19 as a public health crisis. Of the four that died, one of the fatalities was a woman and three were men. Three of the individuals had preexisting health conditions that contributed to their deaths, while one of the individuals died solely from their COVID-19 symptoms.

One of the fatalities was in their 60s, two were in their 70s and one was older than age 90. Three of the deceased were Latino while

one was white. Three of the residents were not associated with a skilled nursing or residential care facility while one was a resident of Watsonville Nursing Center, the dashboard shows.

Though deaths continue to trickle into the data dashboard, hope for a healthier future comes in the form of vaccine news late this week. A Sutter Health spokesperson confirmed to the Sentinel on Friday morning that a blip in vaccine supply was alleviated by doses from the county’s own storage. According to Santa Cruz County’s vaccine page, it has received nearly 48,000 doses to date. Approximately

10,000 of those doses are withheld for future vaccination efforts.

“The vaccine shortage Sutter experienced was minimized in Santa Cruz County and we have not had to cancel any second dose appointments in Santa Cruz County to date,” the spokesperson said. “Sutter appreciates the county’s willingness to deploy vaccine through our clinics and further our shared goal of vaccinating as many vulnerable patients as possible.”

If all goes to plan, Sutter patients systemwide will be able to complete those second-dose vaccinations missed in other counties within the CDC’s recommended six-week window.

“As of today, Sutter Health has been allocated

approximately 30,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from the state, which we expect to arrive next week. An additional 30,000 doses have been committed to Sutter, from the State, for the week of March 15,” the spokesperson said. “When we receive the promised 60,000 doses, we will still need another 30,000 to complete the approximately 90,000 second vaccination appointments originally booked across our network.”

To date, more than 91,000 shots have been administered in Santa Cruz County between county and community partner clinics, multi-county entities and the Federal Pharmacy Program, the California Department of Public Health’s vaccine page showed Friday afternoon.