LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – As Lake County and other jurisdictions around the state look toward trying to loosen COVID-19-related restrictions, new data is showing that while cases and testing numbers are continuing to rise, there is a promising trend in a decline in hospitalized COVID-19 patients across California.
New demographics data also is showing the impacts of the virus on the health care community and on certain ethnic groups.
Health departments across California reported more than 56,000 COVID-19 cases and 2,300 deaths as of Monday night.
On Monday, Lake County’s COVID-19 cases rose to eight, after test results confirmed that a Lake County Jail inmate had contracted the virus, as Lake County News has reported.
More than 600 county residents have been tested and there have been no COVID-19 deaths reported in Lake County.
The majority of Lake County’s cases so far have originated with out-of-county contacts that then spread to family members, according to previous public health reports.
Based on California Department of Public Health statistics, hospitalizations appeared to have peaked at just under 3,500 patients statewide last week, and since then have shown the first multiday decline since hospitalizations began to be tracked in March.
Local health officials planned for a surge at local hospitals, which hasn’t materialized. So far, only one of Lake County's confirmed cases has been hospitalized.
CDPH has launched a new data portal that tracks COVID-19 cases statewide and by county, gender, age and ethnicity. The portal also outlines statewide hospitalizations and testing efforts.
The new CDPH dashboard showed that there had been three suspected COVID-19 hospital patients and one suspected intensive care unit patient in Lake County; those are differentiated from confirmed patients. Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace said he did not have information on those suspected cases.
While data released by the Centers for Disease Control last week showed the number of deaths from all causes is up statewide and nationwide – a fact attributed to COVID-19 – an initial look at coroner’s statistics in Lake County indicates an opposite trend.
For the period of Jan. 1 to April 24 of 2019, there were 109 coroner cases, while for the same time period this year the number of coroner cases has dropped to 95, according to Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
In assessing cases of pneumonia, which in some parts of the nation have been flagged for a reported connection to COVID-19, in the first four months of 2019, Lake County had eight pneumonia-related deaths while it has had only two so far this year – in January and February, Paulich said.
Pace told the Board of Supervisors last week that Public Health staff have been working on conducting surveillance testing and increasing local testing capacity.
In Lake County, the first drive-thru testing will be rolled out on Tuesday in Lakeport.
State officials said they also are working to expand access to COVID-19 testing.
More than 747,874 tests have been conducted in California and reported to CDPH. That total includes data from commercial, private and academic labs, including Quest, LabCorp, Kaiser, University of California and Stanford, and the 25 state and county health labs currently testing.
The state said laboratories have reduced the testing backlog.
Growing impacts for health care workers, certain ethnic groups
CDPH said that, as of Monday, local health departments across California have reported 6,103 confirmed positive cases in health care workers and 32 deaths statewide.
The state also has released an update on the racial demographics of COVID-19 in California, which CDPH reported is important to determine future action.
“Health outcomes are affected by forces including structural racism, poverty and the disproportionate prevalence of underlying conditions such as asthma and heart disease among Latinos and African American Californians. Only by looking at the full picture can we understand how to ensure the best outcomes for all Californians,” the agency said.
CDPH said the differences in health outcomes related to COVID-19 are most stark in COVID-19 deaths.
With nearly complete data on race and ethnicity for COVID-19 deaths, CDPH said that, overall, for adults 18 and older, Latinos, African Americans and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are dying at disproportionately higher levels.
The proportion of COVID-19 deaths in African Americans is about double their population representation across all adult age categories, CDPH reported.
For Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, CDPH said overall numbers are low, but there is nearly a four-fold difference between the proportion of COVID-19 deaths and their population representation.
More males are dying from COVID-19 than females, in line with national trends, according to CDPH’s report.
On the local level, Pace has so far refused to release demographic information about Lake County’s patients.
This story has been updated to reflect that one of the previous COVID-19 cases in Lake County was hospitalized.
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State’s COVID-19 cases trend up, hospitalizations drop; efforts continue to increase testing, surveillance in Lake County
- Elizabeth Larson
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