Tuolumne County officials urge ‘staying the course’ on COVID-19
Tuolumne County officials say that a gradual decline in daily COVID-19 cases since the holidays is a signal that local efforts to combat the spread of the potentially deadly virus are working.
The officials stressed the need for “staying the course” in light of the decreasing numbers while speaking to local media outlets Friday at a weekly coronavirus briefing, during which they also talked about how extreme weather across the United States has affected COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to the county.
“This has been a difficult process, but what public health has been doing has worked,” said County Supervisor Ryan Campbell, who serves as chairman of the Board of Supervisors. “Following the plan of staying socially distant, wearing masks, washing hands, is working. The vaccine is working.”
The average number of daily new community cases, which don’t include inmates at Sierra Conservation Center outside of Jamestown, has declined from seven per day last week to 3.6 per day from Monday through
Thursday this week.
Meanwhile, nearly 20% of adults in the county had received at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Friday.
“If we all kind of continue pitching in and working toward this
goal of having immunity in our community, that’s going to free us up and bring things back to the way they were PRE-COVID-19 as much as possible,” Campbell said. “The way to get past this terrible pandemic we’ve all been living through is vaccinations, masking and social distancing.”
Campbell noted how a winter surge beginning around Halloween significantly impacted the county and other jurisdictions across the U.S., which has been largely attributed to people gathering for the holidays against social distancing guidelines.
The county had recorded fewer than 300 community cases from the start of the pandemic in March through October, though the number stood at 2,485 as of Thursday. In addition, 50 of the county’s 56 deaths due to COVID-19 happened since Nov. 1.
There are also people suffering from long-term effects after contracting the virus, Campbell said.
“Some people may be asymptomatic, some may just have a really bad cold, but for every person who dies, there are 100 people who have really severe sickness for a long time,” he said. “I’m speaking from people I know in my life who were infected months ago and are still struggling, so it’s no joke.”
Dore Bietz, the county Office of Emergency Services coordinator, said extreme weather in other parts of the U.S. had delayed the shipment of 1,100 additional vaccine doses and forced the department to cancel a clinic scheduled for Tuesday.
Bietz said they still planned to hold a clinic on Thursday for eligible individuals, who will be notified by the department ahead of time. The department distributed 625 doses at a clinic held this week.
The team at the county Public Health Department is also working to integrate all of the different places for people to get a vaccine with California’s new Myturn website that’s set to launch on March 7, with the hopes of it being a single place to find vaccination opportunities in the community.
While the county remained in the purple tier, the most restrictive in the state’s four-tiered reopening plan, there is also hope of that changing within the next month if the numbers continue to stay low or further decrease.
“What we do individually will determine how quickly we get out of purple,” said Rebecca Espino, director of the county Health and Human Services Agency. “Nobody wants to be in purple, but again, we are the masters of that destiny.”