Two other Sonoma County residents have died from complications of the coronavirus, which has led to seven fatalities of the infectious disease since it emerged here in early March, the county’s top public health official said Monday.
Dr. Sundari Mase, the county health officer, said the deaths occurred on Sunday and Monday. The two people were residents of a skilled nursing facility and a residential care home, and she would not mention either facility.
Mase also declined to say where they died or disclose any demographic information about them or how, where and when they contracted the highly contagious virus.
The two additional deaths are a vivid reminder that the persistent virus is still circulating in the community despite the broader evidence, exhaustive tracking of close contacts of those infected, and deliberate public health measures that require people to use Facial coverage and are kept 6 feet away from anyone other than the immediate family. . And the moment follows a couple of weeks of unease over local case mounting and comes amid concerns that parts of California are losing considerable ground to the pathogen. So much so, that the governor began to withdraw over the weekend with alcoholic beverage providers.
The county reported the sixth and seventh local deaths just one week after the fifth COVID-19-related death on June 21, a 65-year-old man with underlying medical conditions who died at a local hospital.
That man, also a resident of a skilled nursing facility, had been transferred to a hospital less than 24 hours before his death. The previous coronavirus-related deaths, which occurred on May 11, May 3, April 10 and March 20, involved an elderly person in poor health, county health officials said.
Mase has repeatedly refused to reveal the name of the skilled nursing site where the man who was the fifth local resident to die from the virus lived.
However, data from the California Department of Public Health shows that Broadway Villa Post Acute, a skilled nursing and therapeutic facility in Sonoma, reported to the state on June 22, a day after death, a death related to a resident with COVID-19.
On Sunday, Broadway Villa informed the state that it had 14 residents who tested positive for COVID-19 and a cumulative total of 17 confirmed cases. She also reported at least one case among her staff.
Skilled nursing sites must report residents or staff testing positive for the highly contagious virus, as well as coronavirus-related deaths, to the state health department within 24 hours.
Mike Empey, CEO of Broadway Villa, did not return calls or respond to emails on Monday or multiple attempts to contact him last week.
Susan Gorin, chair of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, expressed her condolences to the families of the county’s last two deaths from the elusive virus.
“Populations in skilled nursing facilities are among the most vulnerable in the entire country,” said Gorin.
In fact, last week Mase revealed that there were 40 infections among the area’s senior sites since June 1, including 21 residents of skilled nursing or residential care facilities and 19 staff members.
The news of the local deaths came amid concerns over the increasing number of confirmed cases in the county, as well as throughout California.
On Monday, Governor Gavin Newsom said the virus-related hospitalizations have increased approximately 43% in the past two weeks, although he added that the state still had beds to treat additional patients. Newsom also said that the state’s positivity rate, the portion of overall test results that are positive, increased from 4.4% to 5.5% in the past 14 days. And he said that new infections have increased 45% in seven days.
In Sonoma County, the number that most concerns Mase, the health officer, is the increasing number of infections per 100,000 residents. As of Monday, the county had a 14-day case rate of 72.8 cases per 100,000 residents.
That rate has risen rapidly due to recent spikes in cases, including 75 more cases over the weekend. Since the end of last week alone, the case rate per 100,000 jumped to its new level of 61.7.
At the beginning of the pandemic that started in March, Mase had said that any number greater than 25 local cases per 100,000 residents would be cause for concern, and if other key virus monitoring measures also worsened, it could be reason to consider reincorporation into trade. or public. restrictions
As of early June, there were 564 COVID-19 infections across the county, and rampant transmission has doubled the number. On June 22, the county recorded 50 new cases, the most reported in a single day since the first case with a local resident emerged on March 2.
Most recently, Mase has been looking at the state’s county monitoring list, which lists places that don’t meet state benchmarks for containing the virus, so state health officials are working with local officials to help them. to fulfill them. There are 19 counties on that list now, but not Sonoma County.
However, Mase said Monday that she was concerned that the increase in new cases means the county is approaching 100 cases per 100,000 residents, the threshold that would likely put this county on the state’s “watch list” alongside with the other counties with increasing cases of coronavirus.
Mase said state officials will recommend certain business closings for the listed counties for at least three days. The state can order the closure of counties on the monitoring list for 14 days, he said.
In fact, Newsom ordered Sunday to close non-food bars, breweries, and breweries in seven of the counties the state is monitoring. On Monday, the governor warned that if transmission of the virus continues to cause cases and hospitalizations to increase in certain areas, it will move to closed business sectors that have been reopened.
Mase said he is closely watching an increase in local hospitalizations. According to the control panel of the county’s COVID-19 hospital, since last week the county experienced almost twice as many patients requiring hospital treatment for the infection. Coronavirus-related hospitalizations advanced from seven Thursdays to 12 on Sunday.
“It is a big jump in percentage, but there are only five additional hospitalizations,” he said. “When the numbers are so low, I don’t think we will see as much of the percentage jump.”
You can contact the editor Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or [email protected]. On Twitter @pressreno.
