LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Despite dropping case and positivity rates, officials reported Tuesday that Lake County will remain in the highest of the state’s COVID-19 ranking tiers.
Since the end of November, Lake County has been in the purple tier on the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy. Under the purple tier, which signifies widespread virus in the community, some business sectors remain under stricter guidelines, such as no dining in being allowed at restaurants.
In its weekly update on COVID-19 from Public Health staff, the Board of Supervisors heard from epidemiologist Sarah Marikos, who reported that a positive trend in dropping case numbers is continuing statewide, with a 2.2 percent positivity rate for the 14-day average.
The state has more than 3.5 million cases, and there is a continued reduction in hospitalizations. There are 4,229 patients hospitalized across California on Monday, of which 1,136 were in intensive care, Marikos said.
Here in Lake County, while the case metrics are improving, Marikos said it wasn’t enough by Tuesday to drop Lake County from the purple into the red tier.
She said that Lake County’s case rate on Tuesday was 9.2 per 100,000 people, down from 11 last week and 15 two weeks ago. Testing positivity is up slightly, from 5 percent last week to 6.3 percent this week.
Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace explained later in the meeting that Lake County needs to drop to 7 cases per 100,000 or below to get into the red tier. That means no more than 33 cases per week, and Lake’s latest totals were around 45 per week.
Pace said he believes Lake County could move into the red tier within the next few weeks.
Lake County’s case epicurve shows 25 cases so far identified for the week beginning Feb. 28, Marikos said. That puts current case numbers at the lowest they have been since mid-October.
As of Tuesday, Marikos said 10,100 Lake County residents have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, about 800 of those doses administered in the last week. So far, 20 percent of the county’s adult population has had one dose.
About 5,200 residents, or 10 percent of the adult population, have had the second dose, with 1,000 second doses given this past week, Marikos said.
She said about 2,100 people, or 51 percent, of those age 75 and older have had one dose. That group, which numbers 5,281 people, makes up 8 percent of Lake County’s overall population.
There are 9,085 county residents aged 65 to 74 making up 14 percent of the total population; of those, 3,836 people or 42 percent have gotten one dose.
Health officials nationwide have placed special emphasis on these higher age groups due to higher risk of mortality.
In congregate living situations, that focus is working. Pace said last week that there have been no new cases in the county’s nursing homes – where outbreaks late in the summer led to numerous deaths – since all of the residents have been vaccinated.
Among the younger age groups, Marikos said the overall vaccination percentages are lower.
In the 55 to 64 age group, with a total of 10,355 people that make up 16 percent of the county’s residents, 10 percent or 1,014 people have gotten the initial dose.
For those aged 45 to 54 age group, with 7,120 county residents or 11 percent of the population in that demographic, 907 or 13 percent have received an initial vaccination.
The age 35 to 44 group, whose 7,634 members account for 12 percent of the county’s total residents, 789 or 10 percent have received their first vaccination.
Of the 20 to 24 age group, with 9,043 members that make up 14 percent of residents, 823 or 9 percent have gotten their first dose.
As for ethnicity, those who are white account for 17 percent of vaccinations; Latinos for 10 percent; multiracial, 16 percent; and black, 11 percent; and Native American, 3 percent.
Marikos noted that the vaccination statistics she offered did not include doses administered under the auspices of the Indian Health Service, specifically, the Lake County Tribal Health Consortium, which it was explained on Tuesday is due to a reporting issue at the state level.
Challenges with vaccine rollout continue; Tribal Health reports on efforts
Pace said the county is still having technical difficulties with the state’s MyTurn vaccination scheduling app.
Last month, Public Health had briefly used the app before discovering that it was allowing out-of-county residents to schedule appointments and show up to clinics, where they were turned away by local staff. The same issue was reported in other counties as well.
Pace told the board that the county is being mandated to make the switch and start using the app again, and that it’s supposed to start next week but the issues still aren’t resolved.
At the same time as the county is trying to sort out the issues with MyTurn, it’s waiting to see how the state will carry out a plan announced last week to devote 40 percent of the vaccine supply to vaccinating the lowest-quartile communities in 446 zip codes on the California Healthy Places Index.
Six of Lake County’s 13 zip codes – Clearlake, Clearlake Oaks, Finley, Lucerne, Nice and Upper Lake – are in those target communities, as Lake County News has reported.
Pace said they’re still waiting to see how that plan plays out on the local level.
With that plan still unfolding and the issues with the MyTurn app unresolved, it raises the possibility that nonresidents could come into Lake County and take advantage of that increased supply to get vaccines ahead of county residents.
Supervisor Jessica Pyska asked Pace if MyTurn will have geofencing to prevent what she called “vaccine tourism.”
“This is a big issue,” said Pace.
“What the state has reluctantly conceded to is that through March we will be able to exclude people from out of county,” he said.
After March 31, however, the state will no longer exclude nonresidents, as Pace said the state wants to remove all obstacles from people being vaccinated.
Pyska asked about how much more vaccine that Lake County will receive for the six lowest-quartile zip codes. Pace said he didn’t have the specifics.
During the meeting, Ernesto Padilla, chief executive officer of Lake County Tribal Health, called in to offer information on their vaccination efforts.
He said Tribal Health’s vaccine supply comes directly from the Indian Health Service, not through the state and the county.
As of last week, Padilla said Tribal Health gave inoculations to 487 tribal members and 1,071 nontribal members, all with the Moderna vaccine.
He said they had two mass vaccination clinics on Feb. 20 and 27 for Tribal Health patients aged 50 and over, with followup clinics to give the second doses set for March 20 and 27.
Before those February mass clinics, Padilla said they already had inoculated all natives age 18 and over who wished to have the vaccine.
On Saturday, Padilla said Tribal Health will have another mass vaccination clinic offering the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine for patients age 40 and over and those with chronic illness. He said the goal is to inoculate 500 people on Saturday.
Board Chair Bruno Sabatier said Lake is the only county with a tribal health facility reaching out and serving the nontribal members, adding that it’s really about the whole community and getting vaccinations out to everyone.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Lake County remains in state’s most strict COVID-19 tier; Tribal Health vaccination effort moving quickly
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On