Coronavirus updates: Will arctic blast in US delay vaccine shipments to California?
There’s no formal definition for when a surge of COVID-19 starts or ends, but California’s numbers are dwindling toward where they were before cases began to skyrocket in early November.
The two-week case rate on Wednesday fell below 10,000 per day for the first time in nearly three months. The state reported just 4,090 new cases, the least in a single day since late October.
New infections are now coming in at less than one-quarter of the winter peak rate, when nearly 41,000 cases were reported a day from New Year’s Eve to Jan. 13, according to the California Department of Public Health. In less than six weeks, the statewide test positivity rate has fallen from 14% to 4.1%.
For just the past week, the state is faring even better at an average of about 7,600 cases a day and 3.3% of tests returning positive.
Those figures are vast improvements from California’s worst surge of the pandemic, and they are beginning to approach levels from before the surge took hold. After plateauing below 4,000 cases a day most of September and October, California entered November at a rate of around 4,275 a day and two-week test positivity at 3.2%.
Likewise, the number of confirmed coronavirus patients in hospital beds has been plummeting, ticking backward through the milestones at a fast clip. From a peak of 22,000 hospitalized with COVID-19 in early January, the state fell below 15,000 on Jan. 30, below 10,000 last Thursday and as of Wednesday’s update from CDPH has dropped below 8,250. The current total is the state’s smallest since late November.
Fatalities are slowing but remain elevated, always the last to decline in delayed tandem with case and hospitalization rates.
The state as of Wednesday has reported an average of 407 COVID-19 deaths per day over the past two weeks. That’s down from an all-time high of 542 a day for the two weeks ending Feb. 1, but it’s still nearly 10 times higher than a low point observed in mid-November.
Concern among health experts remains high because genetic variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 have the potential to undo the recent progress.
One particularly concerning variant known as B.1.1.7 was originally identified in the United Kingdom and linked to a sudden, steep surge there. Scientists say B.1.1.7 appears to be much more infectious than other strains of the virus, and they are continuing to study whether it is also deadlier.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which warned in January that B.1.1.7 could become the dominant variant by March and possibly lead to a dire spring surge, has now confirmed nearly 1,300 B.1.1.7 cases across 42 states. The CDC says more than 415 of those cases have come in Florida and 186 have been found in California, including at least one instance in the Sacramento area disclosed Feb. 8 by Yolo County officials.
The good news is that the two vaccines currently authorized for use in the U.S., one from Pfizer and the other from Moderna, appear to be effective in neutralizing B.1.1.7.
Still, with the vast majority of Californians yet to receive their first vaccine dose, state and local health officials continue to preach the importance of avoiding gatherings, social distancing and wearing a mask when outside of one’s household.
To date, more than 3.4 million have tested positive for COVID-19 in California and over 47,500 have died, according to CDPH.
Arctic blast delays US vaccine shipments. What about California?
CDC officials and some states’ governors are warning deliveries of COVID-19 vaccine doses set for this week will be delayed at least a few days due to the extreme winter weather blanketing most of the contiguous United States, according to numerous media reports.
Politico reports impacted major shipping hubs include FedEx facilities in Louisville, Ky., and Memphis, Tenn.
Heavy snow and deep freeze across most of the country will continue to disrupt distribution as well as administration of doses, as weather will force appointment cancellations en masse.
It was not immediately clear to what extent, if any, supply delays might impact California, one of a handful of U.S. states missed by the cold snap. Forecasts from the National Weather Service don’t show any inclement weather in the Golden State that would force appointment cancellations.
It has happened this winter, though. An atmospheric river storm in late January hammered Northern California with wind, rain and snow, forcing some vaccination clinics to be rescheduled or canceled, including an El Dorado County-run clinic in South Lake Tahoe.
California to date has administered at least 6.26 million of the 8.25 million total vaccine doses delivered to local health offices and hospital systems.
The pace of injecting shots has continued to accelerate several weeks into the rollout, as has the federal supply allocation. The CDC says California next week will receive about 763,000 first doses of Pfizer and Moderna, 23% more than this week.
Sacramento area by the numbers: Over 2,000 dead
The six-county Sacramento region — Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties — has reported close to 146,000 combined positive cases and at least 2,017 virus deaths over the course of the pandemic.
Sacramento County has confirmed 91,144 cases since the start of the pandemic, and at least 1,402 of those residents died of COVID-19. The county on Tuesday added 965 new cases and 10 fatalities for the four-day reporting period including Presidents Day on Monday, followed by 214 new cases and 20 deaths in Wednesday’s update.
By date of death occurrence, December and January were Sacramento County’s two deadliest months of the pandemic. Local health officials have confirmed 382 deaths for December and at least 300 in January. They have also now confirmed 38 resident deaths for Feb. 1-9. Of the 20 newly reported Wednesday, 10 were from late January and 10 from early February.
Prior to December, the county’s deadliest month of the pandemic was August, at 181 virus deaths.
The countywide total for hospitalized virus patients dropped from 227 on Tuesday to 212 by Wednesday, with the ICU patient total falling from 62 to 61, according to CDPH.
Placer County health officials have confirmed a total of 19,433 infections and 223 deaths. Placer on Tuesday evening provided its first update in five days, reporting 258 new cases and one new virus death.
State data showed 67 virus patients in Placer hospitals as of Wednesday, a decrease by 10 from Tuesday. The ICU total fell by four, from 21 to 17.
Yolo County has reported a total of 12,208 cases and 172 deaths. The county added 86 cases for the reporting period of Sunday through Tuesday, following 36 cases reported Saturday.
Yolo officials recently noted that deaths are confirmed in groups, meaning there may be no deaths noted for several days and then many confirmed in a day or two.
State data showed Yolo increasing from 10 virus patients Tuesday to 11 on Wednesday, with the ICU total growing from four to six.
El Dorado County has reported 8,973 positive test results and 91 deaths, last reporting 118 cases and one death for the four-day reporting window of Saturday through Tuesday.
El Dorado has reported a significant spike in virus deaths compared to the first several months of the health crisis: 87 county residents have died of COVID-19 since Nov. 25, compared to four from last March through mid-November.
State data show El Dorado with five patients hospitalized with confirmed cases of COVID-19, three of whom are in intensive care. The hospitalized total dipped down to two last Friday.
In Sutter County, at least 8,708 people have contracted the virus and 93 have died, officials said Tuesday. Yuba County, which shares a health office with Sutter, has reported 5,634 infections and 36 dead.
The lone hospital serving the Yuba-Sutter bicounty region — Adventist-Rideout in Marysville — had 29 hospitalized virus patients in state data updates Tuesday and Wednesday, down from 32 last Friday, and the ICU total has fallen from 11 to nine.
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 8:07 AM with the headline "Coronavirus updates: Will arctic blast in US delay vaccine shipments to California?."
