Covin-19: Innoor mhsks returning
Supervisor Mcgourty: 'We've been screwing around with this long enough'
With 42 new cases reportedly recorded on Monday alone, Mendocino County is experiencing a new surge of Covid-19 that Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren said is causing hospitalization rates to approach the levels seen last winter.
“In May and June our average daily case rate increased from 3 to 6 per 100,000, then in July it jumped to 14.6 per day, and in the last week we had 21 cases per day,” Coren told the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors Tuesday. “In Lake County, the average case rate is about 55 per day, and Mendocino County could be there in two to three weeks.”
“We had 42 new cases (Monday)” Coren continued, explaining that since increases in hospitalizations follow increases in case numbers, “we are seeing hospitalization rates approaching those of last winter. In July, hospitalizations hovered around 11, “but on
Sunday (Aug. 1) we had 14 people in the hospital, six of whom were in the Intensive Care Unit. Also, last week there were two new deaths, bringing the total to 52.”
In response to this latest surge, Coren said he was planning three responses: 1. Ordering universal masking for all indoor public spaces, regardless of vaccination status; 2. Requiring that firefighters, EMS and other first responders either verify vaccination status or undergo frequent Covid-19 testing if unvaccinated; and 3. Urging all employers to require either verification of vaccination status or frequent testing for their employees, including Mendocino County.
“The true consequences of not doing this is again having to close schools, recreation and businesses, as well as having increased illness and death,” he
said, and most supervisors Tuesday expressed support for Coren’s masking orders and vaccine verification recommendation.
“We’ve been sort of screwing around with this long enough,” said 1st District Supervisor Glenn Mcgourty, referring to Coren as his family doctor “who raised me and my kids, healthwise, and I think that’s the most important source we’ve got — people who have actual knowledge.
“The longer we screw around with this, the more likely we are to get a variant that may create resistance to the very good vaccines that we have, because these things are just extraordinary in the adaptability they have,” Mcgourty continued. “It’s time for us to get this over with. I know some people will feel personally offended that we’re violating their rights, but I have a right, too. I have a right to stay healthy, and to not have people around me who can’t take care of themselves.”
“I’m a little caught offguard by the request from Dr. Coren, and I think there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for public comment,” said 2nd District Supervisor Maureen Mulheren. “I understand fully Dr. Coren’s request of the board, but I am concerned that there wasn’t a lot of public outreach in advance of this conversation.”
Two people then addressed the board, both in favor of the board taking further action. One of them was a woman who said she has a 17-year-old child who is now working as a cashier on the South Coast, and she was hoping that PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) such as masks and face shields could be distributed to essential workers, such as cashiers, “because this virus is very contagious and protecting our essential workers should be a priority.”
When asked for clarification on what Coren was asking of Mendocino County employees, particularly when County Counsel Christian Curtis expressed concern about “circumventing labor unions,” Coren said, “My intent is to create guidance strongly recommending
that all employers develop and implement HR policies to require vaccine verification or frequent testing for their employees, and that would include Mendocino County, but it would be general guidance.”
“I think we can also record that as a directive of the board?” said Board Chairman Dan Gjerde, and the board was on record as supporting both the universal masking order, and recommending enacting “a policy requiring proof of Covid-19 vaccination and/or frequent testing for unvaccinated employees as an example for all other employers within Mendocino County.”
In terms of total Covid-19 cases in the county, Coren said that 88 percent of them are occurring in the unvaccinated, and 95 percent of the people needing to be hospitalized with Covid-19 are unvaccinated. He described cases among the unvaccinated as “seventimes more likely, and hospitalizations 12-times more likely.”
He said there were no current outbreaks, but several “high-risk exposures,” such as at least one employee testing
positive last month at both the Starbucks on East Perkins Street in Ukiah, and at Raley’s Supermarket in Ukiah. People who visited the Starbucks at 704. E. Perkins St. “between July 20th, 21st and 27th,” or visited Raley’s on North State Street the weekend of July 23-25 “may have been exposed to Covid-19, and are advised to seek testing if unvaccinated, or seek testing if exhibiting symptoms while vaccinated.”
Coren also described the Delta variant as more “sticky” than other strains of the Covid-19 virus, with a shorter incubation period, “passing as quickly as the Chicken Pox does, which is very, very transmissible.”
He also described “nasal viral counts (as) 1,000 times greater with this (Delta) virus than with other variants, and this is both in unvaccinated and post-vaccinated people. So fully vaccinated people have been shown to pass the virus on to others even without symptoms — this is new. Also new is evidence that (Delta) is more virulent, with an increase in hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths.”