COVID updates: San Francisco adjusts mask order; rural California hit hard by omicron
Coronavirus activity continues to trend down from a peak earlier this month in California.
The state’s daily COVID-19 case rate fell to 197 per 100,000 residents, California Department of Public Health officials reported Friday, down 33% from an all-time record 10 days earlier of 294 per 100,000. Test positivity dropped to 18.8%, from a high of 23%.
CDPH reported 14,674 COVID-positive patients were in hospital beds Thursday including 2,585 in intensive care units, down from peaks of about 15,500 and 2,600 earlier this week, respectively.
State-level numbers are improving as infection rates fall in densely populated places like Los Angeles County and other counties in Southern California and the Bay Area.
But transmission remains high and are either still climbing or in the early stages of plateauing in many areas, especially rural counties in Northern California and the Central Valley. Calaveras, Yuba, Tuolumne, Fresno, Merced, Tulare, Stanislaus, Tehama, Madera, Glenn and Sutter counties all had positivity rates above 30% as of Friday’s update.
In Amador County, bus services were canceled Wednesday through Friday “due to coronavirus exposure to our staff,” Amador Transit wrote on its website. Bus service is planned to restart Monday, Amador Transit said.
Amador Superior Court services were also suspended this week as COVID-19 cases created a staff shortage. The court is set to reopen next Wednesday, District Attorney Todd Riebe said in a statement.
“That’s right, the halls of justice are once again being affected by the pandemic,” Riebe wrote Thursday. “We have got to keep our fundamental community institutions, such as health care, the courts, our schools, and public safety agencies functioning.”
Riebe called for Amador residents to get vaccinated, wear masks indoors in public places and isolate when sick.
Sacramento County health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye in early January ordered public meetings — including those by city councils, school boards and the county Board of Supervisors — to be held virtually rather than in-person, in order to keep critical government services running.
That health order was set to be reassessed no later than next Tuesday, but Kasirye on a call with reporters Thursday said that will likely be too early to lift the requirement. She said it will probably extend through mid-February.
‘Stealth omicron’ subvariant prompts some early concern
A subvariant of omicron known as BA.2 appears to be spreading around the world, and has been confirmed in at least 11 cases in California.
Some health officials have nicknamed BA.2 as “stealth” omicron because some of its genetic features make it harder to detect as omicron. Tests can still detect it as COVID-19, but labs may not be able to use some of the same techniques they used to distinguish omicron from delta.
Dr. Dean Blumberg, professor and chief of pediatric infectious disease at UC Davis Health, said BA.2 has become prevalent in Denmark, which is seeing a sharp surge in cases, and that early data from Denmark suggests it may be about 50% more transmissible than the original omicron strain, BA.1.
One significant concern is that prior infection with BA.1 may not confer immunity against BA.2. Blumberg said there are early reports of people being infected with BA.2 about a month after getting BA.1.
The long-term consequences of BA.2 are not yet fully clear, as health experts continue to investigate severity and other factors.
San Francisco to lift some mask requirements
The city of San Francisco will ease some of its indoor mask requirements beginning Tuesday, as local COVID-19 numbers improve.
The local health department in an amended health order this week said masks will not be required for “stable cohorts” of people who are “up-to-date” on their vaccination status.
Stable cohorts are defined as groups of 100 or fewer people who meet on a regular basis, such as offices, gyms or college classes, as well as religious gatherings with more than 100 attendees.
Up-to-date means fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and having received a booster dose once eligible to be boosted.
California in mid-December returned to a universal mask requirement in indoor public places, but allowed counties with existing mask orders that differed slightly to keep those in place.
San Francisco is among several Bay Area counties with a local mask order, as well as Sacramento and Yolo counties in the capital region.
California’s statewide mask mandate will remain in place through at least Feb. 15.
Latest Sacramento-area numbers
Sacramento County has recorded 256,416 total lab-confirmed cases and 2,662 deaths from COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic, according to local health officials.
The county as of Friday reported the daily case rate at 161 per 100,000 residents, down from an all-time high of 242 per 100,000 recorded two weeks earlier.
According to CDPH, Sacramento County’s latest test positivity rate is 21.7%.
County hospitals were treating 599 patients with confirmed COVID-19 as of Thursday, down from 634 one week earlier. The ICU total fell to 96 from 107.
Placer County has tallied 55,978 cases and 523 virus deaths to date, last updated Wednesday.
Local health officials last reported the daily case rate at 151 per 100,000 for the week ending Jan. 17.
Placer’s positivity rate is 22.6%, CDPH reported Friday.
Placer County hospitals had 251 COVID-positive patients Thursday, up from 229 one week earlier. The ICU tally increased to 49 from 45.
Yolo County has confirmed 31,733 infections and 270 deaths from COVID-19, last updated Thursday.
The county’s latest reported case rate is 206 per 100,000, for the week ending Jan. 23.
CDPH reports Yolo County’s positivity rate at 6%, second-lowest among all of the state’s 58 counties.
Yolo County hospitals were treating 24 patients with COVID-19 on Thursday, down from 25 one week earlier. The ICU total decreased to seven from eight.
El Dorado County has reported 24,663cumulative cases and 188 deaths from COVID-19, last updated Thursday.
El Dorado’s latest reported case rate, for the week ending Jan. 20, was 121 per 100,000.
The county had a positivity rate of 22.8%, CDPH reported Thursday.
Hospitals in El Dorado County had 25 COVID-positive patients Thursday, the same total as one week earlier. Four patients were in ICUs, down from eight.
Sutter County has recorded 20,253 cases and 210 deaths, and Yuba County has recorded 15,811 cases with 96 deaths, according to a Thursday update from the bi-county health office.
CDPH reported Yuba County at 171 daily cases per 100,000 and Sutter County at 149 per 100,000 as of Friday. Positivity was 33.5% in Yuba and 30.2% in Sutter.
The lone hospital serving Yuba and Sutter counties, Adventist Health and Rideout in Marysville, as of Thursday had 66 patients with confirmed COVID-19, up from 59 one week earlier. Eight were in the ICU, the same as one week earlier.
This story was originally published January 28, 2022 at 10:14 AM with the headline "COVID updates: San Francisco adjusts mask order; rural California hit hard by omicron."
