Despite COVID-19 case numbers creeping back up in some areas of the country as the holidays approach, Contra Costa County continues to make steady progress, health officials told the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
But county health services director Anna Roth added a cautionary note.
“We have seen that progress slow in the last few days and we are starting to see some stabilization and even just a little rise in our hospital numbers,” Roth said. “Again, though, I want to talk about the progress.
“We’re seeing lots of the progress we’re having because so many of our residents are choosing to get vaccinated, both for the first time and with booster doses.”
Roth said more than 500 county residents per day are getting their first dose, and 53 percent of eligible seniors have received their booster. Since becoming eligible earlier this month, 26 percent of eligible Contra Costa children ages 5 to 11 have received their first dose.
Overall case rates are down as well.
“Cases per 100,000 are at 6.7, compared to a month ago they were 8.8, so we’ve had a 24 percent decrease,” Roth said. “One month ago, we had 53 people in the hospital with COVID; today we have 33. So we’ve seen a decrease — only 8 of those people are in the (intensive care unit). And those kinds of numbers are comparable to last spring, which was before the Delta surge.”
Roth said the county has administered more than 95,000 doses of vaccine over the past 15 days, 23,000 of which to children ages 5-11.
“Overall, we’ve administered more than 1.9 million doses here in Contra Costa County,” Roth said, adding “our equity team has been working very hard to close” the vaccination gap. As of this week, 75 percent of the county’s Latinx population had at least their first dose, about the same rate as White residents. African-American rates still lag, at 66.6 percent.
“So we still have some work to do,” Roth said. “Our equity team is still very much out in the field and working diligently.”
Deputy health officer Dr. Sofe Mekuria told the board the county is steadily approaching state-mandated goals to lift indoor masking requirements, one of which is having 80 percent of eligible people fully vaccinated.
The county is currently at 74.2 percent, with 80.6 percent having at least one dose.
“If all 74,000 people who are now partially vaccinated get their follow up doses in the next few weeks, we’d easily meet the goal of our 80 percent of individuals fully vaccinated to lift the indoor masking order,” Mekuria said.
The county also must be in the yellow tier of state guidelines for three consecutive weeks to lift the order. The county has been fluctuating between yellow and the more restrictive orange level.
“The best way to keep our momentum is to avoid a holiday surge and protect yourself, and the best way to do that for every eligible resident to get vaccinated right away,” Mekuria said. “Or get their boosters. In California people are 6.5 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than fully vaccinated individuals.”
For more information on where to get vaccinated and other COVID-19 related information, people can go to www.CCHealth.org.
30 comments
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What ever happened to “herd immunity”?
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Never heard of it
Useless bureaucrats talking again.
Simon says: “Wear your mask”
The East County cities have had a sharp decline in new cases per capita this month. In Central County, Martinez stands out for being the city with the highest case rate in the county. Not surprisingly, vaccinations in Martinez have leveled off, leaving a significant number of people unprotected.
Observe this.
‘So, when they weren’t injected, their infection rate was 1.3% and when they got injected, it was 4.34%. It went up by over 300%,’ Pfizer ex-employee Karen Kingston stated. ‘They had less infection when they had no protection. So, that’s a problem.
I smell something Pfishy.
Do you honestly believe that the vaccine protects you or anybody? Why all the boosters? Why does Pizer get to hide their information on Covid for 55 years? Why can’t we sue the creators of the vaccine? Why have there been more deaths reported from Covid this year compared to last year? I could go on and on but do whatever mental gymnastics you need to do and virtue signal away…herd immunity would have us out of this & closing down the economy clearly wasn’t & isn’t the answer. Just take a look at Florida, an older population with better metrics than California.
Folks here in Martinez seem to be quite healthy as well as level headed. Perhaps the jail and the hospitals in the vicinity add to the numbers. 😉
You can’t manage the outbreaks of the common cold. Besides it’s cold and flu season which came on early due to human caused “global warming”. Usually we don’t see temps like this in November but in January/February.
It’s already lifted in many places I was at Home Depot in Concord yesterday and probably half the people in there including a few employees were not wearing masks.
I was not wearing a mask either as were the other times I’ve been in there over the last three or four months.
No one said a word to me about putting a mask on either as I’m sure they didn’t want a confrontation with me about it.
I had to stop reading when I got to the word, “Latinx.” The use of this word is an indication that Anna Roth is WOKE, and being WOKE is a strong indication that she is mendacious.
You say mendacious; I prefer lying sack of sh*t.
I like this word. It lets me call the chinese Chinx without repercussions.
@ Googlar
Thank you truly for my biggest laugh this month.
Yeah, right. Until they move the goalpost again. Who even cares what the county “allows” anymore?
Many in the medical profession are beginning to look a lot like the little boy who cried “Wolf” too often.
Take off masks, don’t show papers, don’t shop or support any business that makes you do either.
Speak with your dollars!
Yep, thats what I do. All my shopping and dining is done in Solano county. I refuse to give Commie Costa county any business until this madness has ended…which sadly will probably be never.
Damn straight chicken little
Except at In-N-Out Burger.
Burger Woman Bad.
Here are the things that need to be recognized:
1) Natural immunity
Once you have natural immunity, the likelihood of having a negative test after having the virus in the next three months is rare. So, in CCC, Kim McCarl thinks that it’s permissible to ask for vaccine papers or provide a negative test. Ms. McCarl who is not in the medical field, ignores natural immunity. Therefore, those of us who have had covid, have natural immunity and cannot eat inside, go to the gym, get a massage, go to a play, etc. Wonderful job, Ms. McCarl.
2) Covid death rate v. the survival rate—how come we never list the percentage of survivors, but insist on focusing on the cases, hospitalizations and deaths?
3) These mandates are hurting small businesses and individuals, but why would McCarl, Roth, Chris Farnitano, Candace Anderson and Karen Mitchoff give a hoot? They’ve not missed a paycheck yet.
4) no one should be coerced into taking an EUA vaccine nor is it legal under the Nuremberg Code. History repeats itself, but be careful about letting the woke re-write it.
Exactly. And how many went through the last year, maybe got the virus, nothing happened because their immune system trampled it or they had a brief sore throat that they got rid using methods that worked for them in the past. Such people should probably be showing antibodies for the “virus” and thus immunity.
Thing is there are inexpensive blood tests which have not come to market or were blocked because obviously if people could self test and show they have the antibodies then the “jig is up” for those making billions off the “pandemic”.
Gibraltar – 100% vaxxed, and Christmas is Cancelled!
Pandemic of the Vaxxed. Leave us Purebloods alone…..we will survive.
Evacuate or get off the pot, Sweetie
I’m so tired of people thinking it’s their job to protect me. It’s my life I should be able to live it my way.
Just more flatulence.
Really not worth the read.
How come their own website (ccc vaccine covid dashboard) says we are over 78% of elegible vaccinated, but this article says 74%? Granted, the indoor mask mandate says we are also only 74 …
hmm … thinking the goal post is moving again.
74.4% of ALL residents in Contra Costa have been fully vaccinated. 78.4% of residents 5 and older have been fully vaccinated.
On October 7, the County published the criteria that would be used for lifting the indoor masking mandate. One of the requirements was that 80% of the entire population needs to be fully vaccinated.
Over here in our FREE (Red) State, we have been dining, shopping and worshiping mask free pretty much since Easter. And life is just fine, thank you very much. Bodies are not piling up at the morgue or left lying in the streets. You have to wear one at most doctor offices but that will eventually change as well.
I don’t know if we get the government we deserve, but I do know that we can’t punish government as much as it deserves.
Cities in our county need to take some notes from Oroville, CA and declare itself a Constitutional Republic and stop enforcing these ridiculous State mandates.
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