County ties its single-day COVID-19 death record

SANTA CRUZ >> Santa Cruz County reported on Wednesday seven coronavirus-related deaths in one day for the second time since the start of the pandemic, which is the most the county has ever reported in a single day.

The county last reported this many deaths in a single day just under a week ago on Jan. 21. The second report comes shortly after Gov. Gavin Newsom pulled all counties in California out of the stay-at-home order. Some of these deaths may have occurred while the stay-at-home order was still in effect, but the Sentinel can no longer confirm the date of death for each case.

Previously, only two regions in the state had the Intensive Care Unit capacity to leave the order, Northern California and the Greater Sacramento Area.

Santa Cruz County is still in a poor position in terms of ICU capacity. While the number of patients under ICU care has only increased by one countywide to six, the county also lost three ICU beds, with only one still available. General hospitalizations have increased by one patient.

Despite more reliance on ICU beds from the previous day, the county has seen a decrease of active COVID-19 cases, according to the county COVID-19 dashboard. There are only 59 new cases, while 253 new people have

recovered. With the seven deaths, active cases have dropped by 201 to 2,118.

All seven of the recent deaths were senior citizens. Three of them were in their 60s, one was in their 70s, one was in their 80s and two were at least 90 years old. All but one of them had at least one underlying condition.

Only two of the victims were affiliated with a residential nursing facility. One death comes from the Watsonville Nursing Center and the other was affiliated with the Westwind Memory Care in Santa Cruz. This is Westwind’s first reported death.

Two of the virus’ victims were of Latino ethnicity, which continues to be the hardest hit community in the county, making up 53.6% (most) of the known cases and 30% (second

most) of the related deaths, while comprising only 33.5% of the county’s population.

A drive-thru vaccine clinic was recently set up in Watsonville, which is home to a majority of the county’s Latino population at 46%, in order to vaccinate the elderly population and medical professionals of the county’s hardest hit community. Watsonville makes up 53% of the county’s known cases while only housing 19% of the county’s total population.

Two of the new deaths were white people and the remaining three were of unknown ethnicity.