County’s case count tops 500
Nineteen new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Humboldt County since Sept. 19, bringing the total number of positive tests in the county since the virus first appeared in the county at the end of February to 501.
The county reported its seventh COVID-19 related death on Thursday. The deceased individual was in their 60s. No further information on the individual has been reported.
Seven new hospitalizations due to the coronavirus have occurred in September. As of Wednesday four patients were currently hospitalized in county hospitals. There have been 30 hospitalizations in the county since the pandemic began.
The recent uptick in local hospitalizations moved the county’s own estimate of its Health Care System Capacity on Wednesday from its Alert Level 1 (green) to Alert Level 2 (yellow).
The county’s health department reported Wednesday, “Over the past week local hospitals reached an inpatient census of five COVID-19 patients, with four patients currently hospitalized in Humboldt County. Three individuals requiring inpatient care are under 60 years of age.”
The county’s Public Health Officer Dr. Teresa Frankovich said Wednesday in a news release, “Health Care System Capacity describes trends in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, infections in health care workers and the availability of critical medical resources,” Dr. Frankovich said. “While our local health care system currently has good capacity to respond, it is important for us to remember that even when our overall case rates are lower than those in many areas of the state, we can still see an increase in hospitalizations. The move from green to yellow in our alert system signals the importance of the health care system in our COVID-19 response efforts.”
On Tuesday the county reported that “more than 30” COVID-19 cases have been tied to a large lateAugust gathering in the county. The gathering counted around 50 people from different households, and from outside of the county.
22 cases have been directly tied to the gathering, and around 10 more from contact with people who attended the gathering.
“Gatherings are a driver of infections across the state,” Frankovich said in a Tuesday news release. “You can’t predict in advance which gatherings are going to be super spreader events, and so the safest thing is to not hold them at all.”
As of Friday, the county’s “Spread of COVID-19 Illness” and its “Health Care Capacity” alert level’s both stood at Level 2 (yellow) out of four levels, Level 4 (red) being the most dire.
The county’s “Effectiveness of Disease Control”
alert level remains at Level 1 (green).
As of Friday the county reports it has processed 28,402 tests, out of which there have been 501 positive cases. There have been 473 recoveries, 30 hospitalizations and seven deaths since the first recorded case of COVID-19 was found in the county in late February.
The county’s positivity rate over the past week was 2.2%.
Over 40% of local cases have been diagnosed in people below the age of 30.
As of Friday 23% of total positive cases had been recorded in individuals ages 20-29, making the age group the largest category of persons to contract the virus in the county.
20% of cases have been found in people ages 3039. 14% of cases have been found in people ages 4049. 12% have been found in people ages 10-19. All other age ranges are below 10%.
As of Monday, the county’s confirmed case rate was 362 per 100,000 residents. The state and national rates are more than five times higher at 1,949 and 2,070 cases respectively. The county updates its case rate data every Monday.
The county’s COVID-19 dashboard can be found here: https://bit. ly/2G95ZS3.