Several people are checking into hospitals in Sonoma County during this explosive surge in coronavirus cases. The Press Democrat reports healthcare officials in the county say they’re not in danger yet, of running low on equipment, personnel and beds. It comes as some residents and staff members at senior care facilities are starting to get offered the vaccine. The county started inoculating the first tier of healthcare workers nearly 2 weeks ago. But the last two weeks, the county has averaged 271 new cases/day. Then on Sunday it was 392 cases, the highest since the pandemic first surfaced. The Public Health Officer, Dr. Sundari Mase says there’s widespread community transmission, and the virus, is everywhere. As of Sunday, the county had 74 people in a hospital, including 20 in an ICU. There are still 23 available ICU beds.
The Gov. says he’s considering a request for a one year extension of the National Guard to go out to food banks short on staff. 19 state lawmakers asking the state for the extension. The Press Democrat reports the CEO of the Redwood Empire Food Bank supports the idea. The food bank has distributed almost 25,000 boxes of food, packed by guard members. The food bank gives out food to over 300 curbside distribution sites in Lake, Mendocino, Humboldt, Sonoma and Del Norte counties. There have been about ten Guard soldiers packing 1,200 food boxes a day at the food bank’s warehouse.
Patients continue to pour into hospitals across a big chunk of the state. The Governor used part of his weekly address yesterday warning residents to be prepared for the surge upon surge upon surge from recent holiday travel. ICU beds in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley have zero capacity and the Governor says it’s obvious the latest stay home order has to be extended where there are hospital ICUs with less than 15% capacity. He did say however that admissions to hospitals have been plateauing in some places. But Newsom added, Calif will soon enter a new phase where hospital beds will be filled in arenas, schools and tents.
Another death from coronavirus has been reported in Mendocino County. The Public Health’s COVID-19 dashboard showed there have been 26 deaths. Last week we hit 25. The County Administrative Office reported the latest death was a Latino man in his 70’s from Ukiah. The county’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer says the man died while in intensive care at Adventist Health Sunday morning. The death as the Governor, and local officials are warning not to gather over the holidays. Public Health has posted multiple times on Facebook against holiday gatherings.
A man who killed his traveling companion from Illinois has been sentenced to four years in prison. 22 year old Mavrick Fisher was sentenced last week for the August 2019 murder of Grant Whitaker outside Clearlake. The two reportedly came to Calif. in hopes of starting a camp for the deaf together. They ended up in an altercation while camping. Fisher admitted to the killing and even led police to the dead man’s body. Last month a jury found Fisher guilty of involuntary manslaughter and stealing a car. But he was found not guilty of murder and the jury was deadlocked on voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon with a special allegation of great bodily injury or death.
Record high numbers of covid cases in Lake County. In one of his weekly addresses, the Public Health Officer, Dr. Gary Pace says we might see another surge due to Xmas gatherings even though the state rate has started to plateau after the Thanksgiving surge and stay-at-home orders across the state. Lake County is in the RANCHO region of Northern Calif. one of five regions the state is dividing to keep track of cases. It’s the only region not in the new strict lockdown because the ICU rate has not dipped below 15-percent. Dr. Pace says Lake County’s case load started to rise last month and sits at 41 cases per 100,000, the most since the pandemic started. The positivity rate is 11 percent. There have been nearly 1,800 cases and 23 deaths. Pace says there are currently 300 active cases, 12 people are in a hospital.
California is partnering with the federal COVID19 Pharmacy Partnership. This costs nothing for Calif. to be part of. It allows CVS and Walgreens to administer the Pfizer vaccine to residents and staff in long-term care facilities. Starting next week the two drug store chains will start inoculating folks in nursing homes which should take about three to four weeks. Then they’ll vaccinate staff and residents in assisted living, residential care and other long-term care facilities. Gov. Newsom says leveraging CVS and Walgreens resources can help get the vaccines to the facilities where there’s a higher risk of Covid transmission. There are about 499 nursing homes that will get the vaccine from CVS and 357 from Walgreens. In Lake County, the public health officer says they’ll vaccinate skilled nursing facility staff ahead of the CVS and Walgreens because they’re not starting until mid-January in Lake County.
A man accused of killing his daughter in Hidden Valley Lake in 2017 is finally going to trial. Steven Russell Miller in court for the killing of Hannah Welch. A court found enough evidence to find him guilty in January of 2018 but he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. A doctor has now found that he’s competent to stand trial in the case so he will be tried next year. Several doctors had examined him in 2018 and he was found incompetent to stand trial and that he would not be able to understand the criminal proceedings or assist counsel in a rational manner. A couple months later he was found to be competent and has been in a state hospital since. He’s due in court after the new year.
The state Supreme Court has ruled those in jail or prison found guilty of nonviolent sex crimes could be on the list for early parole consideration, that’s the law in the state. The ballot measure won over four years ago. The Chief Justice of the Calif. Supreme Court wrote that the initiative’s language gave no indication voters intended to exclude inmates based on their sex offense convictions if it was a nonviolent felony. The former Gov. Jerry Brown was behind the 2016 initiative so as to reduce prison populations and expense. But since that time, proponents of the measure have said they never intended for it to include sex offenders. The language in the initiative though did not exclude them.
The most cases ever of COVID19 even as the Governor says new cases are beginning to plateau. The governor spoke yesterday about the need to use arenas, tents and parking lots for more patients, and by the end of Monday there were nearly 66,000 new cases, the most ever. It did have some cases added on that were delayed over the weekend. There were also 249 deaths recorded yesterday, mostly out of Southern California and parts of the Central Valley. Calif. broke a record last week, becoming the first state to record over 2 million cases of coronavirus, and now is about to break another, 20,000 in the hospital with the virus. Right now Calif. has more hospitalizations than any other state.
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