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County officials not concerned with low ICU numbers, moving back into stay home order

Cheyanne Neuffer
cneuffer@tahoedailytribune.com

Since leaving the regional stay home order, the greater Sacramento region, which includes El Dorado County, has struggled to get at or above the 15% threshold, but officials are not concerned with dropping back into the order.

On Tuesday, ICU capacity for the region was 8.3% and the day before was 8.6%, the weekend before the capacity dropped to the 6% range.

According to the California Department of Public Health, the order uses two separate metrics where a region enters the order based on its current ICU capacity and a region exits the order based on its projected 4-week ICU capacity.



It is also possible for a region to have a current ICU capacity below 15%, and the 4-week projected ICU capacity at or above 15%.

The ICU capacity projections are based on four factors: current estimated regional ICU capacity available, measure of current community transmission, current regional case rates and the proportion of ICU cases being admitted.



With the current daily ICU capacity numbers being still so low, the state is still in the process of finalizing re-entry framework for a region that has recently exited the regional stay home order.

“Today’s dashboard shows that as of yesterday, the greater Sacramento region is still projected at or above 15% even if it shows a current rate (again, as of yesterday) of 8.3%,” said Carla Hass, El Dorado County communications director, in an email. “So, based on the state’s projection, we are not concerned about a surprise announcement that our region is back in the regional stay home order.”

County specific numbers are also looking more promising by trending in a good direction.

The dashboard is clearly showing a decline in confirmed cases by day since Jan. 11, hospitalizations on Jan. 20 had a 12% decrease from the previous day.

The greater Sacramento region exited the regional stay home order on Jan. 12 after a directive from Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Once exiting the order, the region defaulted to the purple tier of the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy.

In the purple, most restrictive, tier many non-essential indoor business operations are closed and local jurisdictions have the authority to have tighter restrictions on local orders than the assigned tier.

To learn more about what can open in Tier 1, visit https://covid19.ca.gov/safer-economy/.

There were five more COVID-19 deaths reported in El Dorado on Wednesday and four more on Thursday, increasing the total number of deaths to 53, most of them happening since December.

The nine new deaths reported were not from the Tahoe region.

There are currently 22 confirmed cases between Marshall and Barton, with four residents in intensive care units and five ICU beds available. But that number changes drastically throughout everyday.

Greater Sacramento and Northern California are the only two state regions not on the regional order making up 9.1% of the state, 90.9% of the state is currently on the order.

Statewide, California continues to remain in the limited stay at home order requiring that all gatherings with members of other households and all activities conducted outside a residence or lodging with members of other households is restricted between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., except for those activities deemed essential.

This order is in effect until all regions leave the stay at home order.

Placer County

Placer county has eight ICU beds available with 162 hospitalized COVID-19 patients. There have been 180 residents die from the virus.

In California, 34,433 have died from the virus, this number increased 2.1% from the previous day.

NEVADA

Washoe County

On Wednesday, Washoe County reported five more deaths on Wednesday. There have been 573 Washoe County residents have died from the virus.

68% of staffed hospital beds are currently occupied which is down from last Wednesday at 80% and 54% of all ICU beds are in use with 53 individuals in the ICU.

The county also reported 68 new COVID-19 cases and 198 recoveries on Wednesday.

Quad County region

Douglas County has not had any new COVID-19 related deaths this week and cumulative deaths remain at 25.

Carson City has had 93 individuals who have succumbed to the virus, which is 10 more than last week. They also have four patients in the ICU.

There are a total of 3,910 Nevadans who have died from the virus. On Jan. 11, Gov. Steve Sisolak announced that the statewide “pause” will be extended for 30 days due to community transmission is still high and hospitals continue to be strained.

This means that restaurants, bars and gyms among other businesses will continue to operate at 25% capacity.

California State Epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan issued a statement Wednesday advising providers that they can immediately resume the administration of lot 41L20A of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, which was temporarily paused on Sunday due to concerns of possible allergic reactions.

The Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup and additional allergy and immunology specialists reconvened to examine evidence.

The release states that the group found no scientific basis to continue the pause, and ensured those who paused that they could immediately resume distribution.

“These findings should continue to give Californians confidence that vaccines are safe and effective, and that the systems put in place to ensure vaccine safety are rigorous and science-based,” said Dr. Pan in the release.

The Washoe County Health District also received Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from the state that was in the same lot as a shipment in California that reportedly was causing the allergic reactions.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave clearance to continue administering the vaccine.

Nevada issued a technical bulletin that said counties that have vaccines in that same lot should have patients wait 30 minutes after their vaccine to ensure no reactions occur.

The state noted that Nevada, Washington and other cities in California also received vaccines in that lot and no significant issues were reported.

There have been approximately 770 people from the Washoe County Point of Dispensing site received the vaccine Jan. 18 and no allergic reactions were reported.

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