Contra Costa County health officials are warning anyone with flu symptoms to also be tested for the novel coronavirus, saying that it’s possible for someone to suffer from both.
Dr. Chris Farnitano, the county’s health officer, told the Board of Supervisors that health officials are working to equip the county’s COVID-19 test locations with vaccines — and flu testing — as flu season approaches.
Both Farnitano and Anna Roth, Contra Costa County’s health director, said COVID-19 testing in the county has been going up — more than 309,000 tests in the past 30 days, Roth said.
As winter approaches, Roth said, plans are being made to move all testing sites indoors. And it appears, she and Farnitano said, that the coronavirus will be part of the Bay Area at least through the winter, if not longer.
“Really, at the most, we’re at halftime with our COVID response,” Farnitano said. “We still have to continue all the efforts to stop the spread.”
The good news, Roth said, is that COVID-19-related hospitalizations in the county have been going down, with the numbers for the first week of September at their lowest totals since mid-July.
While a new testing center is expected to open next week at the county’s Bay Point Family Health Center on Pacifica Avenue in Bay Point, Roth said heat and smoke have prompted the closure of some of the county’s outdoor
testing sites on some days over the past few weeks.
That said, Roth added, on most days same-day COVID-19 testing is available in most parts of the county.
Do they need to find more positive cases to justify Cower-in-Place?
Correct
The state penalizes counties for not doing enough testing. Contra Costa tests either at or below the state average so the adjustment factor is higher for new case/100k. So, if we want to move to the next tier, more testing is required.
From the Blueprint for a Safer Economy:
Counties are assigned a tier based on two metrics: test positivity and case rate. The case rate is adjusted based on testing volume per 100,000 population as described below. Due to variability in data, this adjustment does not apply to small counties (defined as those with a population less than ~100,000 residents, including Sutter County with approximately 105,000 residents)
For counties with testing volume above the state median, the factor is less than 1, decreasing in a linear manner from 1.0 to 0.6 as testing volume increases from the state median to 2x the state median. The factor remains at 0.6 if the testing volume is greater than 2x the state median.
For counties with testing volume below the state median, the factor is greater than 1, increasing in a linear manner from 1.0 to 1.4 as testing volume decreases from the state median to zero. However, this adjustment for low testing volume will not be applied to counties with a test positivity < 3.5%.
https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/COVID19CountyMonitoringOverview.aspx
Probably. The health department wants everyone to get tested regularly. We haven’t gotten tested at all, and have no plants to do so.
@Yves Harlowe….My plants have been wearing masks since this started and I repotted many of them so they were 6 feet apart. I may have to take my ficus in for a test, he’s had breathing problems and a temperature the last few days and I have him in quarantine, fingers crossed!
I call for less Contra Costa County health officials. Guess what both equally mean nothing. Why would you need a test to know if your sick? Now it’s flu AND COVID tests. They want us to take 2 tests now…if your not sick. Pelosi and Schumer day they need money for testing. CCC says they need more people to test. In other words drive up the demand of tests so they can keep saying Trump is slowing testing. This is political hackery at its worst
It will all be fine Nov 4 plus a week or two. Hey what ever it takes to get Old Joes carcass across the finish line.
LIES.
Interesting how influenza infections are down for all of 2020…….could it be because they have changed its name?
@Anon
Where’s your proof or evidence that flu numbers are down? Can you distinguish between calendar years and flu seasons?
Try starting with facts – otherwise you might be the one responsible for the lies.
Okay Einstein…..post up the quarterly numbers of influenza infections.
Stop LYING and calling the flu “covid”.
Or that everyone has been wearing masks and aggressively washing their hands for the last 6 months
Sure Yolanda that’s it. How did you people become so brainwashed?
The COVID hoax is over. Take off your masks
“Really, at the most, we’re at halftime with our COVID response,” Farnitano said. “We still have to continue all the efforts to stop the spread.”
Remember back in the old days when it was “Fifteen days to flatten the curve”? These people are a joke.
all hogwash!
I’m sick and tired of “officials” proclaiming this and that and the other.
It doesn’t matter if they’re right or wrong.
There’s just too much government invading every facet of daily life.
Government at every level could cut 75% of the beaurocracy and we the people would be much better off with less taxes and less oversight.
We are dealing with a disease here that the majority of people aren’t sick. How are healthy people supposed to know they are sick unless they get tested. In the past we quarantined the sick so combat the spread of disease. Now we quarantine the healthy. Its the new normal!!! Interesting how we haven’t deemed society as “VECTORS”. The implication is there, yet the health department can’t seem to just refer to us healthy ones as that. Why label something that can’t be justified, when you can get society to believe it with the way they treat each other. So, so called fellow Vectors, get those tests done if you are feeling especially good. You are no different than the rats and mosquite carrying disease. Yep, society has now deemed you all VECTORS!!
We are dealing with a disease here that the majority of people aren’t sick. How are healthy people supposed to know they are sick unless they get tested. In the past we quarantined the sick so combat the spread of disease. Now we quarantine the healthy. Its the new normal!!! Interesting how we haven’t deemed society as “VECTORS”. The implication is there, yet the health department can’t seem to just refer to us healthy ones as that. Why label something that can’t be justified, when you can get society to believe it with the way they treat each other. So, so called fellow Vectors, get those tests done if you are feeling especially good. You are no different than the rats and mosquito carrying disease. Yep, society has now deemed you all VECTORS!!