LAKEPORT— The Board of Supervisors received an update on the current COVID-19 local surge at their meeting this week where County epidemiologist Sarah Marikos said testing positivity has increased over the last three weeks to a high of 6.3 percent, the highest since the surge this winter.
As of Thursday’s deadline for Friday print, the Health Department data showed an increase of 63 cases since Monday and over 100 active cases in the county.
According to Marikos’ report, as of Monday, the Health Department had identified 36 cases for the week beginning on July 4. The most recent daily case rate shows the daily average is 10.4 cases per 100,000. “This currently is the highest daily case rate in the state for this period June 27 to July 3,” she said, noting that this breaks down to 47 cases among Lake County residents.
In addition, there has been an increase in deaths in Lake County, bringing the total to 63 confirmed COVID deaths, which Marikos said has changed from the last report last month. “It is standard best practice with any communicable disease to do a review of cases and deaths and that is what has happened over the past couple of weeks,” she said, noting that other counties were undertaking a similar review for the state.
“I think it’s just really important to note that we are starting to see increases regionally and statewide, and draw attention to the increase in Lake County. We continue to see cases identified everyday. We aren’t coming down yet. We need to watch this really closely… Many counties have undertaken that quality control effort as we’ve gotten through the surge and out as we’ve gotten through the big vaccine push,” said the Marikos. “Focusing on vaccinations among young people is really critical as we move into the summer, as the Delta variant increases across the state and, very likely, in Lake County.”
Marikos spoke about increases in nearby counties like Mendocino since spring time and COVID hospitalized patients and added that recently Lake County has seen that as well. “That’s a really helpful indicator, looking at hospitalizations due to people (who) aren’t getting tested, the daily case rate can be an underestimate but hospitalizations can be a really good metric of what’s happening in terms of transmission in the community.”
Roughly cases in the last month have matched the racial ethnic composition of the county, according to Marikos’ presentation at the meeting. “Two thirds of the cases were white non Hispanic; almost three in 10 were Latino; 6% were Native American and 4% were Native American non Hispanic. Then, by geography, the recent cases are: One in four live in Clearlake, one in five live in Lakeport and one in six live in Kelseyville,” she added.
Presumed community transmission and household contact remain the leading ways people are becoming sick. “Fifty per cent of people 12 and older of the eligible population are fully vaccinated – and counting. That’s nearly 28,000 people. These are people who are, better protected from becoming infected as well as the Delta variant. Sixty-one per cent of Californians, in contrast, are fully vaccinated. Three in five people, 18 to 49 years old, are not vaccinated,” said the epidemiologist. She added that the Delta variant is the predominant strain nationwide. It is increasing in California and it has been identified in Lake County.
Marikos also reminded the public and the board that the number of people testing positive who have been fully vaccinated is “extremely low”. The daily case rate in unvaccinated individuals has been about four to five per 100,000, and the daily case rate in fully vaccinated individuals has been about 0.5 per 100,000.
A few residents during the public hearing portion of the meeting criticized the coronavirus vaccine, claiming to be against forced digital IDs, calling COVID an engineered biological weapon and objecting to “genocide,” which led to further discussion with a passionate response from District 1 Supervisor, Moke Simon.
“I would like to speak about the ethics of vaccination. Has the board considered that some Lake County residents might have an ethical and/or religious objection to the fact that animals, including fully sentient primates like ourselves, who value their lives, were used without their consent and, subsequently, all killed in order to briefly test each of the currently available COVID vaccines?,” questioned resident Julia Bono.
Other residents expressed concerns with vaccinations and possible negative side effects and asked county health officials to present more detailed data during future reports to the board.
The statistical update of the COVID-19 data page from Public Health – Lake County as of press time Thursday:
Monday, July 12 2021 (stats reported since Thursday, July 15)
. 3,755 overall cases (+63)
. 103 active cases
. 3,589 recovered cases
. 63 deaths (no change)
Vaccine status (12 and older):
. 50.2% – fully vaccinated
. 6.9% – partially vaccinated
. 42.9% – not vaccinated
Agendas of public meetings and supporting documents are available for public inspection in the Lake County Courthouse, Board of Supervisors Office, First Floor, Room 109, 255 North Forbes Street, Lakeport, California; and online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx
