County expected to stay in purple tier

LAKE COUNTY >> Dr. Gary Pace, Lake County’s public health officer, told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday that he expected the county would remain in the purple tier for a “couple months” with COVID-19 cases on the rise in the state and country headed into winter.

This comes as the county’s health department informed residents over the weekend that Lake County had moved from red to purple in the state’s tiered system, meaning additional restrictions on businesses and social movement in the county.

“I think probably in the coming days to weeks we’re going to see more restrictions being placed on folks to try to slow the transmission, to try to keep the hospitals from getting overwhelmed, to try to slow down the suffering and loss of life that could be coming and these are the tools that we have in place,” Pace said Tuesday. “I know this is a really hard thing for people to hear.”

The office also reported that there was an outbreak among “the Native American community.” Pace did not refer to a tribe by name or state the specific number of cases but referred to the outbreak as “large” and stemming from a big gathering.

“The Native American community is very vulnerable,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pace said cases among Latino people had decreased. He said this may be because of seasonal changes in agricultural work and people heading to Mexico for the holidays. He said money from state and federal governments was becoming available to address health disparities and requests for proposals would be released soon.

Pace described the jail outbreak as “reasonably controlled” after the county received recommendations from the state.

He said the county had a total of 951 cases, up 65 from last Wednesday, with a total of 20 deaths. The person who died several days ago was over 65 years old and had other medical conditions but tested positive for COVID-19 and had some related symptoms, Pace said.

He said some testing sites moved and residents should check the county website for the most up-todate information.

Previously Pace had discussed wanting to focus on getting more schools opened, but he noted Tuesday that schools could not open when their county was in the purple tier if they weren’t previously in operation. He urged residents to “buckle down” for now and assured them that the situation would look much different in several months as vaccines became available.

“We will get through this,” Pace said. “This is going to end.”

Epidemiologist Sarah Marikos said the county had narrowed in on four areas where it needed to re

duce transmission, including: households, community settings, congregate living settings, and workplaces.

Marikos shared the following source data for COVID-19 transmission:

Household contact (34%) Presumed community contact (24%) Congregate living facilities (22%) Workplace contact excluding congregate living settings (10%) Other close contact (2%) Missing data (4%)

She said that a case was filed under “presumed community contact” when the person who contracted COVID-19 could not identify

the person they were in contact with who had the virus.

Earlier in the meeting, the board commended Jan Coppinger, the special districts administrator, for her 12 years of service to Lake County. Several department heads also joined in for Coppinger’s retirement send- off.

“You are one person that — if there is money to be found to bring to this community to upgrade our facilities — you find it,” said Supervisor Tina Scott. “So you definitely have some big shoes to fill. Enjoy your retirement but you definitely will be missed here.”