99 New Covid Cases, Update On Skilled Nursing Facility Outbreak In Tuolumne

CDC Covid Transmission levels Current 7-days is Fri May 06 2022 - Thu May 12 2022

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Tuolumne County Public Health reports 98 new community cases, one Sierra Conservation Center inmate case, and three hospitalizations from Saturday, May 7th to Friday, May 13th. There are 110 active community cases down from 123 last week. Last week, including Saturday and Sunday there were 70 new community cases.

Public health officials report they are working with Adventist Health Sonora’s skilled nursing facility units on a COVID outbreak that began the last week of April and has resulted in 30 cases among residents and 27 cases among staff, with the latest reported case today, May 13^th. Health officials state “As throughout the pandemic, the Adventist Health and Tuolumne County Public Health teams are coordinating efforts to mitigate the outbreak and limit impacts to the facility and our community. With increasing cases across the county, we remind everyone to continue to exercise vigilance. We strongly recommend masking in high-risk settings, testing, and staying home when sick (even if you receive a negative COVID test result). These precautions and others such as hand-washing, physical distancing, and getting vaccinated (including boosters) reduce your risk of getting or spreading COVID-19. Vaccination appointments can be scheduled with local pharmacies or at https://myturn.ca.gov/”

CDPH has updated the Safe Schools for All toolkit to include checklists for school event planners and attendees to help students, staff, and families reduce COVID-19 risk during graduation season. For the checklist for graduation event attendees, and event planners visit the Safe Schools for All toolkit here.

The newly reported community cases this week include 15 cases age 17 and younger and 34 cases age 60 or older. The new Covid cases demographics: two girls and five boys age 0 to 11, four girls and four boys age 12 to 17, four women and four men age 18 to 29, eight women and three men in their 30s, six women, eight men and two other in their 40s, eight women, five men and one other in their 50s, ten women and three men in their 60s, six women and five men in their 70s, three women and five men in their 80s, and one woman and one man age 90 or older.

The total current case rate, a 14-day average for Tuolumne County increased to 19.4 from 17.1 per 100,000 population. A total of 109 more are counted as released from isolation, in all 10,818 have been released from isolation. The 7-day test positivity rate remains at 5.6%.

The CDC reports Tuolumne County and most counties in California remain in the least severe “low” (green) community Covid three-tier level according to the CDC determined by the higher of the new hospital admissions and inpatient beds metrics, based on the current level of new cases per 100,000 population in the past 7 days. When evaluating just community transmission level Tuolumne and Mariposa are in the High community transmission level (red is the highest of the four-tier levels) while Calaveras is in the Substantial (orange) level along with Stanislaus. As stated above transmission is just one factor the CDC uses to assign the overall community level which again, remains low (green) across the U.S. except for in 137 counties (up from 79 counties last week), most in the northeast of the country, that are in the highest (orange) Community level.

Calaveras Public Health updates weekly on Tuesdays. They report 26 new cases since from May 3rd to May 10th. That number is down from 28 new cases among residents the week before. They reported 11 active cases, last week there were 17 active cases. There is one Covid hospitalization to report.

Mariposa Public Health reports 47 new cases, (Saturday through Thursday). There are 38 active cases up from 26 active cases last week and no residents are hospitalized with Covid. One new Covid death was confirmed for a total of 35 since the pandemic began.

Mariposa County has reported 598 cases in fully vaccinated individuals since April 2021. This is out of a total of 2702 cases reported since that time.

Health officials share information for those who have questions about masking.

1. Through the first part of May, [Mariposa Couny] averaged over twice as many cases per day as we saw in April. As of the evening of the 12th, we have 5.25 cases per day in May, compared to 2.20 in April.

2. Recent increases are not just from a single cluster but are widespread. This means we are *all* at an elevated risk, not just specific individuals.

3. Masks are effective at reducing the spread of germs. Studies and real-life evidence show that proper use of masks minimizes the spread of respiratory droplets, which helps stop the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses. Some helpful resource links: http://ow.ly/ZMFj50J6YMj, http://ow.ly/Ennk50J6YMk, http://ow.ly/ZreB50J6YMi

4. While [Mariposa County Health & Human Services] are happy to share we have not seen as many cases of severe infection or hospitalizations with these recent cases, we know that getting sick still impacts our community. It means taking sick days for yourself or to care for others, having to skip events, not having the energy to get things done around the house, and more. Let’s face it – no one likes being sick.

With the recent increase in cases, we strongly recommend masking in indoor, public spaces to protect yourself and your fellow community members. Mariposa health officials also note “It’s allergy season! Many of our recent COVID-19 cases reported thinking their symptoms were simply allergies before they developed non-allergy symptoms or received a positive test. Sometimes this meant they spent time around others while showing symptoms and they were able to spread COVID-19 to others. We get it – symptoms can be similar, which means the only way you can know if you do or do not have COVID-19 is to test.” 

COVID-19 Testing Many Over-the-Counter COVID-19 Antigen tests have received an expiration date extension from the FDA. If you have tests, check the dates and for their new expiration date. Expiration date extension for over-the-counter test kits: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests

The hours of the Mother Lode testing site are: Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Antigen tests are by appointment and PCR tests are by walk-in only.

The State testing site at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds is expected to implement Test to Treat operations next week. Through the program, people are able to get tested and if they are positive and treatments are appropriate for them, they can receive a prescription from a provider and have the prescription filled all at one location. Tuolumne Public Health will provide further updates as they receive more information. Information on the T2T program can be found here: https://aspr.hhs.gov/TestToTreat/Pages/default.aspx

Free at-home tests are available to local students. To get a test for your student, call your school or the County Superintendent of Schools Office at: 209-536-2000. To make an appointment for testing at the testing site visit: https://lhi.care/covidtesting

COVID-19 Vaccine Individuals may receive a second booster dose at least four months after their first booster dose if they are age 12 years and older and moderately or severely immunocompromised, or 50 years and older. Another booster is also recommended for those age 18-49 years if they received the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine as both their primary series dose and booster dose. More information can be found at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/clinical-considerations/covid-19-vaccines-us.html. Appointments in Tuolumne and Calaveras can be made through myturn.ca.gov or by calling 833-422-4255 or through local pharmacies, more details are here.