Five more COVID-19 deaths between Tuolumne, Calaveras counties

Three more COVID-19 deaths were counted in Tuolumne County and two more in Calaveras County on Wednesday as a summertime surge in the deadly, ongoing pandemic continued to take its toll in the Mother Lode.

All three deceased individuals in Tuolumne County — a man in his 50s, a woman in her 60s and a man in his 70s — were unvaccinated, the Tuolumne County Public Health Department said.

The two deceased individuals in Calaveras County were identified as a woman in her 40s and a woman in her 60s, but the public health department there does not disclose vaccination status for coronavirus cases or deaths.

There have been at least 17 coronavirus deaths counted in Tuolumne County since Aug. 16. Tuolumne County’s COVID-19 toll increased to 92 deaths since the pandemic began last year. Calaveras has counted 63 coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began.

“There are no words to describe the overload hitting our health systems at this time,” Cori Allen, the Calaveras Health and Human Services Agency director, told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “I urge us to come together in a way that can build community, strength, and a network of support. This may be a time to launch a kindness campaign and to consider the critical work being done by our medical providers, school nurses, public health staff and hospital staff day in and day out who have been tirelessly dedicated to preventing this very spread for 18 months without break.”

Tuolumne County also had 34 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, while Calaveras counted 59 new cases.

Of Tuolumne County’s 34 new cases, two were vaccinated. There were 240 active cases, including 16 Covid-positive individuals hospitalized. The county’s case rate was 52.9 per 100,000 population over the previous two weeks.

Calaveras County had 114 active cases and nine Covid-positive individuals hospitalized, with the latter being a high in recent weeks. The county’s only hospital, Mark Twain Medical Center in San Andreas, put out a news release last Friday warning that the hospital was running out of space when it was treating six COVID-19 patients at the time.

New community cases in Tuolumne County were identified Wednesday as two girls and one boy under age 12; one girl and one boy between 12 and 17; two women and two men between 18 and 29; three women and two men in their 30s; three women and one man in their 40s; four women and three men in their 50s; five women and one man in their 60s; one woman and one man in their 70s; and one man in his 80s.

“Choosing to help the Public Health Department slow the spread of COVID-19 helps protect you, your family, and your community,” the Tuolumne County Public Health Department said Wednesday. “We all need to work together to slow the spread of COVID-19. We strongly encourage everyone to be part of the solution and answer the phone — it may be the health department calling to let you know your test result came back positive for COVID-19, or that you have been in close contact with someone who has it.”