Virus variants not found locally
However, only two samples tested so far
Mendocino County Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren reported Tuesday that there is still no evidence that any of the known Covid-19 variants have arrived in the county, though only two samples have been tested so far.
“Our new county lab (in Solano County) has begun whole genome sequencing to detect emerging coronavirus variants,” Coren told the county Board of Supervisors March 23, adding that “we have already had the opportunity to send them two samples for this; thankfully no variants were uncovered.”
As far as having county samples being automatically tested for variants, Coren explained that “the lab is still in the process of doing quality control on this before we can really make an arrangement with them to set up an automatic sampling of our county positives to see if there’s any new variants happening here.”
Coren added that “the state’s goal is (checking) 2 percent of the positive tests” for variants, which he described as “increasingly a problem, with the two California variants changing from ‘variants of interest’ to ‘variants of concern’ due to their increased transmissibility.”
With more schools opening last week, Coren said “we have seen a slight increase in the numbers of people associated with schools, both teachers and students, who have tested positive (for the virus), but none of these (cases) have been epidemiologically linked, which means there have not been any outbreaks associated with the opening of schools.”
As far as vaccine supply, Coren said there is “not enough to give first doses for this week and
next,” adding that Adventist Health Ukiah Valley was “having similar allocation problems, and had to borrow from a sister hospital in (Los Angeles) last week to fulfill its event need.”
In terms of vaccine eligibility, Coren noted that President Joe Biden announced that “he wants to open up all vaccines to everyone by May, which should be possible if the supply is present.”
As far as vaccine allocation, Deputy Mendocino County Chief Executive Officer Darcie Antle reported that on Monday, the county administered “600 second-dose Pfizer (vaccines) at the (Redwood Empire) fairgrounds, Thursday will be 650 second-dose Moderna, and the city of Ukiah will be providing 425 second-dose Pfizers on Friday at the Ukiah Valley Conference Center.”
As far as the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, Antle said “we do have a team, we’re calling in a Target Task Team for vaccines, that will be going out on Wednesday to find those that are unhoused and provide a dose of the Johnson & Johnson (vaccine).”
As of March 22, the county was reporting a total of 3,920 cases of Covid-19, with two people hospitalized, one of whom was in the Intensive Care unit.
There were two new cases identified Monday, with 40 people in isolation and 80 under quarantine. The seven-day average of daily new cases was 5.17, and the percentage of positives was 2.30.