San Mateo County enters CDC’s red COVID-19 tier but officials see positive trends

We’re not getting better but we’re not getting worse,” Don Horsley, president of the Board of Supervisors, said.

The CDC, which monitors national COVID-19 data trends and publishes them to its COVID Data Tracker dashboard, bumped the county from its medium risk yellow tier to its high risk red tier last Thursday, just before the Fourth of July weekend. A week later, the county remained in that tier.

Transmission rates have remained high in recent weeks, with an average of 10 out of every 100,000 residents contracting the virus in the past seven days, according to the CDC or a total of about 78 cases a day. It’s unclear what effect Independence Day gatherings will have on transmission rates given that data will take about a week or more to collect, County Health spokesperson Preston Merchant said.

Looking at the previous 30 days of data, the county has a positivity rate of 11.9%, according to the county’s COVID-19 lab results data dashboard. Within that same time frame, nearly 11,000 residents have tested positive for the virus.

But after months of growing cases, now totaling more than 153,000 in the county, health officials believe cases could be stabilizing, Horsley said. The county’s fairly stable hospitalization rate is also a good sign, Horsley said, noting the trend indicates that those who have been contracting the virus have not been experiencing serious illness.

According to the county’s hospital data dashboard, 42 patients were receiving care as of Tuesday, July 5 — 38 confirmed, four suspected and five in the ICU.

“Our hospitals are pretty much doing fine,” Horsley said. “You have to be cautious. The [strains] are more transmissible but people don’t appear to be getting sicker.”

Under the red tier, residents are encouraged to mask indoors, stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccines, test if experiencing symptoms and to connect with a doctor or a test-to-treat site if infected.

Officials have also stressed the importance of avoiding indoor gatherings with poor ventilation, especially for people at high risk of severe illnesses who are encouraged to practice additional safety precautions.

Business owners, venue operators, faith organizations and event hosts are also encouraged by health officials to require patrons to wear masks while in doors and to improve ventilation systems and practices like keeping doors and windows open during operation.

“We support the CDC guidelines and have been stressing the need for indoor masking since late April, as cases in our region were rising; community transmission of COVID-19 in the Bay Area has been high for many weeks,” read the update from County Health. “A higher prevalence of COVID-19 means that the risk of exposure is greater, especially as the Omicron subvariants spread more readily than previous variants of the disease.”

Keeping up with vaccines and boosters and wearing high-grade masks like N95s and KN95s are even more important these days for two reasons, County Health officials said. Travel and gatherings will likely increase in the coming warmer months and kids are out of school while COVID-19 transmission has grown among vaccinated individuals as mutations spread among communities.

“Vaccines and boosters continue to lessen the risk of hospitalization and death, but even those who are vaccinated and boosted should wear high-quality masks indoors to reduce their potential exposure to COVID-19,” the press release read.

To date, about 89% of the county’s population ages 5 and older have completed their vaccination series, 66% of those ages 12 and older have received their first booster while second booster doses have been taken up by 32% of those ages 50 and older and 29% of those 65 and older.

Boosters and first and second vaccine doses are still available at community clinics across the county and through local pharmacies. Residents seeking pediatric doses for their children under 5 should reach out to a pediatrician, officials said. Some pharmacies also provide pediatric doses including Walgreens for those 3 and up and CVS for those 18 months and older.

Visit https://www.smchealth.org/coronavirus for more information on vaccine appointments, testing opportunities, COVID-19 trends and preventative measures.