Only the seventh time since the first case of coronavirus occurred six months ago in Sonoma County, a person under the age of 65 has been killed due to complications from COVID-1, county officials said Friday.
Four people were reported dead late Thursday night, bringing the local death toll from the virus to 93. The county released additional information about four patients on Friday, giving them a better understanding of the way the virus is attacking the most sensitive residents of the county.
A patient between the ages of 45 and 64 died on August 1, when he was brought home from the hospital. The man had another health condition and was hospitalized “for a period,” according to county spokesman Paul Gulikson.
The other three deaths reported late Thursday night were in people aged 65 and over and were residents of elderly care or skilled nursing facilities. This age group, many of them have been infected in senior care facilities, resulting in deaths in the county. Is 86.
“Most of our deaths are still in our vulnerable seniors, who are in skilled nursing facilities and residential care facilities for the elderly,” said Dr. Sundaray Messe, Sonoma County Health Officer.
When asked if care homes continue to erupt, Mess said “I don’t think it’s the ‘worse or better’ kind of thing.”
“Every individual facility has a case of covid in the employee, which spreads and then erupts in the facility,” Mess said. “They have a lot of skilled nursing facilities that erupted two months ago.”
State data show that 330 residents of the Sonoma County Skilled Nursing Facility, in addition to 193 facility workers, have been infected with the disease so far.
Mess said state infection control experts have visited local care homes to give advice on how to prevent the epidemic.
Overall, the county has detected 6,142 cases of Covid-19 – including 488 new cases this week alone, since the disease was first detected on March 2, of which 2,360 cases are active while 60% have been recovered. .
Mess said recent data suggest the spread of the disease, although it is still prevalent in the community, has begun to ease.
The county is still an outpost in the Bay Area for its infection rate – 15.6 new cases per 100,000 population per day – which may indicate a large number of tests conducted daily in Sonoma County, Mess said.
But there are areas of concern, mainly social gatherings and workplace outbreaks.
He noted the recent rise in infections in Cloverdale due to cases among Latino residents, including cases among farm laborers living in the community.
Messi drew a distinction between Sonoma County and neighboring Napa and Marine counties, saying more essential workers live and work here while many essential workers work in those areas but live elsewhere.
Mess said teams of public health nurses are in communities testing surveillance of vulnerable people in skilled nursing facilities, in the homeless, in the workforce in need staff and in other areas of concern.
“We have a high rate of positivity, which is a really good thing, which means they’re testing the right population, they’re doing the most risky risk alone,” Mess said.
You can reach staff writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or [email protected]. Jjpressdem on Twitter.
