Humboldt County: One year, 3,000+ cases, 32 deaths

Just one year ago, Americans had no idea that the respiratory illness known as the novel coronavirus would ravage the United States.

Since the onset of the pandemic, COVID-19 claimed an estimated 500,000 lives in the U.S. In Humboldt County, the toll amounted to 32 deaths and more than 3,000 positive cases of COVID-19 among the county’s 135,000 residents.

COVID-19 Arrives in Humboldt County

One month after the novel coronavirus reached the U.S., Humboldt County confirmed its first positive case. On Feb. 16, 2020, Roberta Luskin-hawk, M.D., chief executive of St. Joseph Health Eureka received an email from the hospital regarding a patient with symptoms of COVID-19.

“I remember that night, it was a Sunday evening and I was actually out to dinner,” Luskin-hawk said. “My infection prevention nurse had emailed me saying that there was a couple who had just returned from China and someone had presented symptoms compatible with COVID in the ER.”

At the time, the Centers for Disease Control had extremely strict criteria surround COVID testing. Local testing didn’t become available until about mid-march. Luskin-hawk contacted former Humboldt County Public Health Officer Dr. Teresa Frankovich and received authorization to run the test that became the first positive case in a rural county in the United States.

“We were fortunate for two things: We had doctors and nurses who had been educated about the signs and symptoms, and we had the traveler who had returned from China and was also aware and concerned,” Luskin-hawk said. “We were vigilant and the patient was well-informed.”

Humboldt County Public Health placed the two travelers under mandatory quarantine and warned the community of additional cases from close contacts and other travelers.

“It’s important to remember that the risk to the general public remains low at this time,” said Frankovich in a Feb. 20 statement. “Despite the fact that Humboldt County now has a confirmed case of COVID-19, there is no evidence to suggest that novel coronavirus is circulating in the community at large.”

Looking back at the first days of COVID-19, Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said his biggest concern was the unknown.

“At that point in time, we didn’t know a whole lot,” Honsal said. “We knew that it originated in China, I had been paying attention to what was going on there through December and January, but there was a lot of speculation and questions as far as how China was handling the outbreak because of misinformation and limited information.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, hospitals across the county experienced a shortage of protective equipment. “There was not enough PPE across the country. Hospitals were using as much as they use in a year and a single month,” Luskin-hawk said.

When Mad River Community Hospital was notified of the first confirmed case in the county, it activated an incident command and began drafting a COVID-19 surge plan, according to hospital spokesperson Jacqueline Martin. Through collaboration and partnership with other community organizations, Mad River hospital’s plan served as the model throughout Humboldt County, she said. “The first few months of the pandemic involved lots of training, communication with our staff throughout the organization, following the ever-changing CDC and DHHS recommendations and practices, calming fears of not only staff but our community,” Martin said. “Early gaps in supplies were provided in an almost immediate fashion partially due to the generosity of our community.”

As community concern grew and cases ticked up across the state, the sheriff’s office and Public Health saw a growing need for accessible, up-to-date information.

“I felt it was very necessary as public information was going to be key in this pandemic because of all the information that we did not know. Getting information into the community — viable, truthful, accurate information — was our mandate and I felt like the state and the federal governments were failing at this,” Honsal said, adding that the Joint Information Center, or the JIC, was established mid-march. “We worked with public health to get our call center operational, the establishment of 707-441-5000 was essential for people to get accurate information.”

Humboldt County confirmed its second case exactly one month later on Mar. 20, the same day the shelter-in-place order was issued. Schools, businesses and offices all closed indefinitely.

THE second wave

Throughout the spring and summer, COVID-19 ravaged cities across the United States while cases remained relatively low in rural communities.

Humboldt County experienced an outbreak of the virus in May at Alder Bay Assisted Living in Eureka. The outbreak accounted for the county’s first four coronavirus deaths and 12 additional COVID-19 cases amongst staff and residents. The severity of the outbreak was exacerbated by a staffing shortage at the facility.

In August, the state released its Blueprint for a Safer Economy, a fourtiered system that ranked each of California’s 58 counties by the county’s daily case count and positivity rate. Humboldt County sat in the yellow tier, indicating minimal community spread, for months and did not exceed 10 cases per day until after Halloween.

In November, the county’s case count grew exponentially, and the state shifted Humboldt County from the yellow tier to the red tier — a sign of substantial spread. By the end of the month, Humboldt County moved into the widespread purple tier.

At the beginning of December, hospitals across the state began to struggle with ICU capacity and the state announced a regional stayat-home order that triggered additional restrictions when a region’s ICU capacity dropped below 15%. Throughout the summer and into fall, LuskinHawk said St. Joseph Hospital consistently had one to two COVID-19 patients hospitalized at a time; late in the year it suddenly jumped to four and five.

“We were at a point where we would see 10 to 14 patients in the hospital and one time we were up to six of our 12 ICU beds. In a hospital that runs very full all the time and then you get 14 extra patients that need all this special care, it is a big deal,” Luskin-hawk said.