Tuolumne County sees 3 more deaths of unvaccinated individuals
The deaths of three more unvaccinated Tuolumne County residents to COVID-19 were announced Wednesday, with the deceased individuals identified all as men in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, respectively.
As of Wednesday, COVID-19 had contributed to 144 deaths in Tuolumne County and 89 in Calaveras County since the pandemic began early last year. In Tuolumne County, 137 of those deaths involved unvaccinated individuals, and seven were vaccinated.
Tuolumne County added 11 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, with 10 of those individuals unvaccinated and one who was vaccinated. The county’s daily case rate also de
creased Wednesday to 18.2 per 100,000 residents averaged over the previous two weeks, down from 18.7 per 100,000 on Tuesday.
The county’s new cases on Wednesday were identified as two girls and one boy under age 12; two women and one man in their 30s; two women and one man in their 50s; one woman in her 60s; and one woman in her 70s.
Calaveras County added 11 more cases of the novel coronavirus Wednesday. Calaveras County Public Health does not publicly disclose vaccination status of new cases or deaths attributed to COVID-19.
There were 10 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Tuolumne County on Wednesday, which include five who were vaccinated and five who were unvaccinated.
The number hospitalized in Tuolumne County on Wednesday was down from six vaccinated and five unvaccinated a day earlier, the first time ever that vaccinated patients in the county outnumbered those who were unvaccinated.
Dr. Eric Sergienko, the interim Tuolumne County health officer, said people shouldn’t be concerned that the breakdown of hospitalizations on Tuesday is part of any sort of larger trend.
“With this small of a population and narrow window of time, there are going to be moments (and) days when the percentage of vaccinated cases is greater than the average over time,” he said. “For the greater region, we continue to have about 20% of our cases being fully vaccinated.”
Sergienko shared a graphic to emphasize more than 80% of new COVID-19 cases from June 1 to Nov. 22 in an eight-county region that included Tuolumne and Calaveras involved individuals who were not fully vaccinated.
The graphic came from the Yosemite Gateway Area Coordination Team, which is led by Sergienko and covers Calaveras, Tuolumne, Kings, Mariposa, Madera, Merced, Mono and Fresno counties.
In addition, the California Department of Public Health also puts out weekly reports on the effectiveness of vaccines that show and describe the benefits of vaccination in terms of decreased cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Unvaccinated people were 7.2 times more likely to get COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people from Nov. 14 to 20, the state Department of Public Health said in its most recent report on unvaccinated and vaccinated data.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 62.4% of people age 12 and older in Tuolumne County were fully vaccinated and 65.8% of people age 12 and older in Calaveras County were fully vaccinated, according to county data monitored by the CDC.