COVID updates: California numbers show vaccine boosters are highly effective
The rate of new coronavirus infections continues to drop in California, with health officials saying the state now appears to be definitively past the peak of its omicron surge.
But outbreaks are continuing in some settings, and hospitals in many parts of the state remain heavily burdened by patients.
Sacramento County health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye on a call with reporters Thursday said there are nearly 600 active cases among inmates at the county’s two jail facilities: 248 at the Main Jail downtown and 339 at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center in Elk Grove.
Those totals mean about 18% of the roughly 3,300 inmates in the county jail system are actively infected with COVID-19, according to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office website, which confirms the same case numbers.
Both facilities saw substantial increases from last week, when the Main Jail had 135 active cases and RCCC had 146.
Kasirye described the jail outbreaks as the primary point of concern at the moment, and said the local health office continues to work with correctional health officials. Support includes testing and allocations of antiviral therapeutics — COVID-19 pills made by Merck and Pfizer, which were cleared for use in late 2021.
Numbers continue to improve for the general population in Sacramento County. The daily case rate has dropped from a peak of about 243 per 100,000 residents in early January to 106 per 100,000 as of a Thursday morning update, according to the local health office data dashboard.
However, the current case rate is still well above any mark recorded before the omicron surge. The county’s pre-omicron record was about 64 per 100,000.
Hospitalizations also remain higher than any previous surge, with 583 virus patients in county hospital beds as of Wednesday, state data show.
“We’ve definitely passed the peak and we’re seeing a downward trend in the numbers, but we are not out of the woods yet,” Kasirye said Thursday.
The California Department of Public Health in a daily update Thursday reported the state’s case rate at 143 per 100,000 residents, down from a peak of about 295 per 100,000 in early January.
The state’s test positivity rate is also still falling, now 13.2% after peaking at 22.8% the week ending Jan. 10.
The state is closing in on 8 million cumulative, lab-confirmed cases for the pandemic: CDPH reported an all-time total of 7.97 million infections as of Thursday.
Hospitals in California were treating 12,643 patients with confirmed COVID-19 Wednesday including 2,366 in intensive care units, according to CDPH, down from omicron peaks of about 15,500 hospitalized and 2,600 in ICUs.
At least 79,802 Californians have died of the virus since the start of the pandemic.
New data show boosters’ effectiveness in California
CDPH this week added a new graph to its COVID-19 webpage showing per-capita case, hospitalization and death rates across three groups: unvaccinated, vaccinated but not boosted and vaccinated and boosted. A previous version of the same graph compared vaccinated vs. unvaccinated, but did not include a breakdown of boosted and not boosted.
The new data show unvaccinated residents were over seven times more likely to test positive, 15 times more likely to be hospitalized and 30 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than boosted residents as of mid-January.
At the peak of the omicron surge in early January, the daily case rate among unvaccinated residents reached just over 800 per 100,000 residents, compared to 296 per 100,000 in the vaccinated but not boosted and 115 per 100,000 among the boosted.
Hospitalizations peaked at 11.5 per 100,000 in the unvaccinated, 2.3 per 100,000 in the vaccinated but not boosted and 0.9 per 100,000 in the boosted.
Deaths have not yet peaked during the omicron surge, but the rates were last reported at 13.9 per million in the unvaccinated, 1.9 per million in the vaccinated but not boosted and 0.6 per million in the boosted.
COVID numbers plummeting at Sacramento schools
Most K-12 school districts in Sacramento County have seen sharp declines in active COVID-19 cases after hitting record highs in January.
San Juan Unified School District officials reported 922 active cases Thursday morning, less than half what the district was reporting last week. Many schools that saw huge numbers in January have observed rapid declines; Bella Vista High School, for instance, has had its active case total decline from more than 200 to 38 on Thursday.
Folsom Cordova’s reported number of active cases has declined from a peak of nearly 800 students and staff to 267 as of Wednesday.
The Twin Rivers Unified School District reported 614 “recent” confirmed cases on Thursday, defined as infections reported within 14 days. That’s about half the number the district was reporting last week.
The Sacramento City Unified District has seen a more modest decline, from about 800 cases last week to 697 active cases reported on Wednesday.
Latest Sacramento-area numbers
Sacramento County has recorded 264,669 total lab-confirmed cases and 2,715 deaths from COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic, according to local health officials.
The county on Thursday reported the daily case rate at 106 per 100,000 residents, down from an all-time high of 243 per 100,000 recorded Jan. 10.
According to CDPH, Sacramento County’s latest test positivity rate is 17.8%.
County hospitals were treating 583 patients with confirmed COVID-19 as of Wednesday, down from 629 one week earlier. The ICU total dropped to 103 from 100.
Placer County has tallied 58,803 cases and 531 virus deaths to date, last updated Wednesday.
Local health officials last reported the daily case rate at 124 per 100,000 for the week ending Jan. 24.
Placer’s positivity rate is 19.1%, CDPH reported Wednesday.
Placer County hospitals had 194 COVID-positive patients Wednesday, down from 257 one week earlier. The ICU tally decreased to 46 from 49.
Yolo County has confirmed 33,126 total infections and 276 deaths from COVID-19, last updated Wednesday.
The county’s latest reported case rate is 147 per 100,000, for the week ending Jan. 28.
CDPH reports Yolo County’s positivity rate at 4.3%, the lowest among all of the state’s 58 counties.
Yolo County hospitals were treating 21 patients with COVID-19 on Wednesday, down from 24 one week earlier. The ICU increased to six from five.
El Dorado County has reported 25,259 cumulative cases and 189 deaths from COVID-19, last updated Wednesday.
El Dorado’s latest reported case rate, for the week ending Jan. 26, was 78 per 100,000.
The county had a positivity rate of 17.2%, CDPH reported Wednesday.
Hospitals in El Dorado County had 21 COVID-positive patients Wednesday, down from 23 a week earlier. Five patients were in ICUs, down from seven.
Sutter County has recorded 20,944 cases and 211 deaths, and Yuba County has recorded 16,428 cases with 96 deaths, according to a Wednesday update from the bi-county health office.
CDPH reported Yuba County at 131 daily cases per 100,000 and Sutter County at 111 per 100,000 as of Thursday. Positivity was 27.7% in Yuba and 24.5% in Sutter.
The lone hospital serving Yuba and Sutter counties, Adventist Health and Rideout in Marysville, as of Wednesday had 83 patients with confirmed COVID-19, up from 62 a week earlier. The ICU total increased to 11 from seven.
This story was originally published February 3, 2022 at 11:51 AM with the headline "COVID updates: California numbers show vaccine boosters are highly effective."
