Covid-19 case rate continues to drop

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors adopted new tsunami inundation maps, as well as addressed new vaccine eligibility requirements and outbreaks, and discussed newly realized requirements for cannabis permitting during their meeting Feb. 23.

After approving the entirety of the consent calendar, the board received their regular report from Public Health Officer Dr. Andrew Coren. Although the county is still in the Purple Tier, Coren told the board that the average daily case rate continues to drop.

Of the total 3,786 known COVID-19 cases, the Latinx community makes up 52 percent, and Native Americans represent 8 percent. This is double their proportion of the populations for

both groups, according to Coren. Deaths due to COVID-19 have increased by four in the last two weeks, to a total of 43 deaths within the county.

Because case averages are low enough, K-6 grade schools have begun to apply for reopening. Both the Ukiah Unified School District and the Fort Bragg Unified School District have reopened.

Previous Coronavirus outbreaks throughout the county have been contained, but an outbreak at Mountain View Assisted Living in Ukiah has grown to involve 23 residents and eight staff members, and has resulted in two deaths.

According to Coren, the outbreak was caused by delays in Coronavirus testing lab results because of the Texas storm.

The infected employee continued to work within the facility for a week before receiving their positive result.

As vaccines continue to be a large focus for staff and residents, Coren said he has decreased the age of vaccine eligibility from 75 to 65 years old. In addition, starting March 15 the California Department of Public Health will begin allowing vaccinations for those of any age over 16 with chronic diseases and disabilities.

The state’s new COVID-19 vaccine scheduling system, Myturn, worked well for Mendocino County last week, Coren said, except for a few bad experiences.

“Some non-county residents tried to jump into Mendocino to get vaccinated and became incensed — and even unruly — when their credentials were denied,” he said. “This is supposed to get fixed soon at the state level.”

The county continues to hold testing sites and vaccine events as doses become available.

Moving on to other areas of public safety, the board voted to adopt new tsunami inundation maps for the county. Emergency Services Coordinator Brentt Blaser explained that the maps have not changed significantly but the state periodically reevaluates areas along the coast in order to update their response plans and technologies.

“Really the bigger impact was more inflow into the rivers,” Blaser said. ‘The modeling is a lot better imagery than we’ve ever had in decades past, so we have a little bit better of an idea that a potential tsunami would go upstream than what we had previously foreseen.”

Todd Becker, Earthquake and Tsunami Program Specialist from the California Office of Emergency Services, explained in the case of a local tsunami, the main warning would be the event of a nearby earthquake. There is often not enough time to issue a formal warning or the alert system may have been damaged, he explained.

In a distanced tsunami event, like from Alaska or Japan, the state and county may have many hours to respond. After receiving a tsunami warning, CALOES will communicate with California counties to recommend a course of action, Becker said.

“Multiple notification methods are planned to attempt to reach as many people in harm’s way as possible for a potential tsunami event,” he said.