A year of COVID-19
Where we’ve been, where we are now, and where we’re headed
It’s been a year since the very first cases of COVID-19 began to be detected in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties. Less was known with certainty then about the novel coronavirus. Some predictions have proved to be accurate.
In late February 2020, before any cases were detected in either county, public health officials in San Andreas and Sonora warned the public should brace for a potential outbreak if the respiratory illness continued spreading worldwide.
“They should be concerned, but they shouldn’t be panicked. Even though it is contagious, COVID-19 has a high transmission rate, but a low mortality rate,” Clarence Teem, medical health operational area coordinator with Tuolumne County, said in late February. “Yes, it will make you sick, but it’s a really small possibility you will get severely ill or you will die from it.”
Nevertheless, local health authorities said at the time that an outbreak in Tuolumne County could mean thousands infected and several dozen dying.
Then came news of the first two cases in Calaveras County, on March 10. A father and daughter in Calaveras County were diagnosed with COVID-19 that day. The first wave of public closures and cancellations came March 11, among them Copperopolis Elementary School and Murphys Irish Days.
A statewide stay-home order was issued March 19. On March 20, Dodge Ridge Ski Area operators announced they were suspending all operations indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 25, the Tuolumne County Public Health Department announced a 31-year-old Mono County woman who was
staying at a home her family owns in Tuolumne County tested positive for coronavirus and was being treated at Adventist Health Sonora.
The second confirmed case in Tuolumne County — a 34-yearold woman who was the first Tuolumne County resident known to have acquired the virus — was announced March 30.
A year later, it’s easy to remember an avalanche of health advisories from federal, state and local authorities, the neverending stream of bad news for schools, student athletes, small businesses, and nursing homes, and the seemingly sudden upheaval of life routines that have yet to return to normalcy.
There had been 5,930 cases of COVID-19 counted in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties as of Thursday afternoon, with 109 coronavirus deaths in the two counties combined.
Calaveras County tallied its 50th COVID-19 fatality on Wednesday. The individual was a man age 65 or older, Sam Leach, the Calaveras interim health director, said Thursday. Leach did not respond to questions about when the man died, or if the report of the man’s death occurred during the winter surge and was delayed, like the 22 deaths that were belatedly added to Calaveras case totals in late February.
A state vaccine dashboard updated Thursday showed 19,600 vaccine doses had been administered in Tuolumne County. The county’s estimated population is 54,660. In Calaveras County, 13,413 vaccine doses had been administered as of Thursday afternoon. The estimated population for Calaveras is 46,300.
Tuolumne County remains in the purple, most restrictive tier for widespread risk of coronavirus transmission on a state Blueprint for a Safer Economy. Calaveras has moved to the red tier for substantial risk, Mariposa has moved to the orange tier for moderate risk, and Alpine has moved to the yellow tier for minimal risk.
Normalcy is still a long way off. High schools in the Mother Lode are preparing to play a shortened spring season of football, soccer, cross country, and girls golf. The first Mother Lode League team to play football will be Summerville, with a road game scheduled in Mariposa on Friday. Basketball and volleyball teams are preparing to start practice May 1, with games beginning May 12, the Mother Lode League announced Wednesday.
Many small business owners feel they are still in limbo. They hope for the best this spring and summer. Local health officials have expressed optimism about an easing of limits on large, public gatherings by the end of June.
People are still cautious about getting their hopes up too high. Less than a week ago, organizers of the Mother Lode Roundup Rodeo and Parade confirmed they will be forced to cancel the event for the second year in row due to COVID-19 restrictions. Audie Archer, general chairman of the Mother Lode Roundup, said the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Posse could not see a way to successfully host and break even on the beloved, long-running event given the limitations on crowd sizes that will likely still be in place by its traditional date of Mother’s Day weekend in May.
At the same time, organizers of the Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee are moving forward with plans to stage their four-day event May 13 to May 16. Laurie Giannini, CEO and manager of the Calaveras County Fairgrounds, said last week they are in planning stages for hosting a reimagined version of the event that will follow health guidelines currently available.
Seasonal farmers markets in Tuolumne County are also set to begin on schedule in May after delayed opening last year. Public health staff say farmers markets are still allowed under state guidance for the retail industry. The Sonora Certified Farmers Market is scheduled to begin its season May 15 and run through the third Saturday in October. Peaceful Valley Farmers Market in East Sonora is set to begin its season May 7 and run through October.
Organizers of the Tuolumne Lumber Jubilee are also planning to move forward with a normal three-day event this year, June 25 through June 27. They held a one-day event last year that was rebranded as a protest due to the restrictions in place at the time.
Whether the Mother Lode Fair will be held in July remains unclear.
That’s where we are now. Where we are headed, according to public health staff for both Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, depends on how well people continue to follow basic steps intended to reduce spread of COVID-19, and whether people take seriously the current warnings that another surge is possible this spring and summer.
“The watchwords remain the same,” Dr. Eric Sergienko, interim health officer for Tuolumne County, said Thursday in a phone interview. “We have to remain vigilant. This coronavirus is subject to mutation, and there are three variants of concern. We have to be mindful of them and how they could cause another wave of infections. We want, in the near term, the next couple of months, we want to get as much vaccine into people’s arms as possible so we can blunt the potential impact of these variants on our population. The variants can cause further infection and they can cause another surge.”
Right now, there are three variants of concern: one from South Africa, another from the United Kingdom, and the last from Brazil. Because they spread more easily, Sergienko said, they have the potential for causing another surge.
“When I first spoke to the board about this in March of 2020, one message that this will take 18 months to two years to return to something close to normal,” Sergienko said. “This still holds true, and I am hopeful about seeing that occur in that timeframe.”
Calaveras County Supervisor Merita Callaway said Thursday the past year “has been a continuous bronco ride,” from the first stay-home order, getting masks and sanitizers that were both in short supply, to trying to do rumor control. Public Health staff have been working seven days a week, and residents are tired of the pandemic. There’s been anger, frustration, despair, isolation.
“It saddens me that I can’t solve it,” Callaway said. “At the same time, people have reached out to help friends and neighbors, the Ebbetts Pass Moose Lodge did free lunches for the community, Meals on Wheels increased from 39,000 delivered last year to 42,000. Where there have been needs, people have stepped up.”
Tuolumne County Supervisor Ryan Campbell said the past 12 months have comprised a long and difficult year, but he remains optimistic for the future. A year ago, no one could have imagined all the ways COVID-19 would come to dominate our daily lives and relationships.
“It has pained me to see our community, our young people and our businesses suffer under social gathering restrictions, but the biggest tragedy of all has been the deaths of 59 of our citizens,” Campbell said.
The first statewide lockdown that began in late March a year ago convinced Campbell the pandemic was not going to be a short-term emergency, that it would take many months, lots of resources, and far too many deaths before things would get back to normal. At the time, there were still many who had doubts about the significance of COVID-19 and its dangers, and there wasn’t much consensus about what to do.
“I decided the county would need a strong and very consistent approach, and I think Public Health has done a heroic job,” Campbell said Thursday. “I think our vaccine rollout has been extremely successful and our main stumbling block continues to be the supply. The fact that we have endured this long is a significant milestone. It proves our community is resilient against great hardships, and able to adapt, in order to support one another.”
Leach, the Calaveras interim health director, said it’s vital for people to “please understand that we are in this together and we will get out of this together.” Vaccines are really critical the next few months so that we can work toward herd immunity and get back to normal life, Leach said.
“Until more people have been vaccinated, please continue to wear a mask, maintain six feet of distance and avoid large gatherings,” Leach said. “We are getting closer to the end of this, so let’s all work together as one community.”