Another COVID death reported
Nearly half of Mendocino County residents 65 and older now vaccinated
Another Mendocino County resident died from the Covid-19 virus this week, bringing the total number of deaths to 44 as of March 6.
“The most recent death was a 93-year-old woman from Ukiah,” said Mendocino County Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren Friday, adding that the other most recent deaths include a 74-year-old man “actually from out of county, and before that was a 97-year-old woman from here in Ukiah.”
As of Friday afternoon, Coren reported that there were only two people hospitalized with the virus, with no one in the intensive Care Unit locally, but that there
“are two Mendocino County residents who are hospitalized out of county, and one Mendocino County resident who is in a nursing home out of county.”
Also Friday, Coren said there were no new outbreaks for him to report, and that the county is “working on arranging a program of regular, whole genome sequencing for variants with our Solano lab.”
The daily average of new cases was at three, which Coren said was down from his last report, when there was an average of about 20 cases. Also down was the daily positivity rate, which was at 2.7 percent, “down from the range of seven last time.”
As to when the county might be able to move into the Red Tier, “while we are nicely decreasing our numbers of cases, remember that in a small county, even a few cases can keep us out of the next tier,” he said. “Currently, we’re in the Purple Tier, but what is new as of (Friday), is that wineries, breweries and distilleries, if they are serving food,” can conduct some limited business indoors.
In terms of vaccination efforts, Coren said that as of March 2, “we have (administered) 31,180 total vaccines, which amounts to 31.5 percent of Mendocino County’s population that is over 16 years old having had at least one dose, and 13.5 percent of our community has had the complete series.”
Coren said that nearly half (46) of the people aged 64 and older in the county have been vaccinated, “but that only 16 percent of the Hispanic
population has been vaccinated, versus 47 percent of the Caucasian population.” Coren said that a third vaccine, created by Johnson & Johnson, is on its way to the county, and in terms of “which vaccine is best, it’s the one that’s available to you.”
Saturday morning,
county health officials reported five new cases of the virus for a total of 3,839 cases, with 40 in isolation and 69 in quarantine. Also as of Saturday morning, there were five people hospitalized, with one of those patients in the Intensive Care Unit.