Delta variant confirmed in county

Dr. Coren describes Covid vaccines as effective against all variants

Recently received test results show that the Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus is indeed circulating in Mendocino County as suspected, Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren reported this week.

“We were just informed of a cluster that existed in Mendocino County of the much more transmissible, and possibly more virulent, Delta variant,” Coren told the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors during its latest virtual meeting July 13, adding that all the known variants have now been identified in the county, but that “all are still susceptible to the vaccines.”

However, he added that only one dose of a two-dose course, such as for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, is “significantly” less effective against the Delta variant than both doses. “So we want to encourage anyone that only got their first dose to make sure they get their second dose.”

In Mendocino County, the average Covid-19 case rate is trending higher than that of the state, Coren said, describing California’s case rate as 3.3 per day per 100,000 people, while the case rate in Mendocino County is at 5.65 per day per 100,000 people. The county’s Test Positivity Rate is also about twice as high as that of the state.

As of Tuesday, Coren said that nine people were hospitalized in Mendocino County due to the virus, and that five of those patients were in the Intensive Care Unit. He added that two of the patients were Lake County residents, and that two of the patients listed were actually hospitalized in Sonoma County.

As for outbreaks, Coren said there were technically none to report on, but “we’re seeing an increase in high-risk exposures in clusters, mostly associated with restaurants, Willits Frontier Days, and the cause seems

to be community spread. “Nearly all the cases

we’ve seen lately are in unvaccinated people, and many cases are asymptomatic,” he continued. “Some have mild symptoms but are not self-isolating and continue to work, and some are actually continuing to refuse to talk to (contact tracers), so we’ve developed a letter of notice to send to people who refuse to talk with our investigators.”