Here’s why Stanislaus County health officer feels COVID still a threat to residents
Stanislaus County’s health officer said Tuesday the county continues to struggle with the coronavirus pandemic, even though the state lifted a regional stay-home order Monday.
The state decision was based on a projection that hospitals in the San Joaquin Valley region will have at least 15 percent of intensive care beds available for patients four weeks from now.
“We still have a lot of people in our hospitals,” said Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, county health officer. “We still have a lot of people in our ICUs. The lifting of the stay-home order does not mean we are out in the clear.”
Vaishampayan provided the update to county supervisors as state leaders heard some criticism the regional restrictions might have been lifted too early.
COVID-related hospitalizations in Stanislaus County have fallen below 300, to 291 on Monday, but intensive care units are holding 67 patients who are seriously ill with COVID-19. That is higher than the peak last summer.
More than half the ICU beds in the 12-county valley region from Stockton to Bakersfield are filled with COVID patients, Vaishampayan said.
The county is urging local residents to continue with mask-wearing, social distancing and hand-washing, while the county continues with efforts to vaccinate eligible residents at clinics.
County staff said the four vaccine clinics are set up to vaccinate 36,000 to 40,000 residents per week. With a nationwide shortage of coronavirus vaccine, however, the county can ask the state for only about 4,400 doses per week.
The clinic at Modesto Centre Plaza administered 1,090 doses Monday, and 1,136 doses were injected at the Stanislaus State University clinic in Turlock.
The county expected to give 500 first doses to people who lined up at Oakdale’s clinic Tuesday. A fourth hub in Patterson is expected to open Friday at Creekside Middle School.
Counties in California were eagerly awaiting more details from President Joe Biden’s administration on a rumored increase in vaccine shipments to the states. They are also hearing that California will change its strategy for vaccinations, with more focus on equity and a statewide vaccine administration network using the expertise of third-party administrators.
Some pieces of the network will include public health systems, public hospitals, pharmacies, community health clinics and mobile sites with an aim to accelerate the vaccination process. The state wants to make vaccine more accessible to low-income neighborhoods and health providers serving underserved communities, which have suffered harshly from outbreaks of COVID-19.
State officials said Tuesday that local public health systems will continue to play a key role in vaccinations.
County officials said they are working on ways of getting vaccine to older or disabled people who can’t stand in line at large clinics, perhaps through special transportation, and are trying to locate vaccination pods in underserved neighborhoods.
With the lifting of the regional order, Stanislaus County will live with the state’s “purple tier” restrictions until it qualifies for moving to one of the less restrictive tiers of the state’s reopening plan. In California, 54 of the state’s 58 counties, or about 99 percent of the state’s population, are in the most restrictive purple tier.
Moving to the red tier will require Stanislaus to lower its daily case rate to less than 40 per day and a test positivity rate under 8 percent. The county reported 258 new cases Monday and its positive test rate stood at 12.9 percent.
This story was originally published January 26, 2021 at 2:22 PM.
