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COVID caseload: Officials say cases can’t be linked to any one event

Nevada County recorded 121 new COVID-19 cases Monday, according to the county’s Coronavirus Dashboard, marking the 10th day this month on which over 100 new cases have been recorded.

Prior to August, there had only been one day this year, Jan. 19, on which over 100 new cases were recorded in the county.

As of Sunday, according to the state’s COVID-19: Hospitals dashboard, the county had 23 active hospitalizations of positive patients — lower relative to last week’s peak of 32 and the county’s 14-day rolling average of 26.



‘HARD TO PIN DOWN A SINGLE EVENT’

Local health officials said during a Q&A last week that it would be difficult to determine whether the local caseload was linked to any specific event.

“It’s so widespread, and we’re simply not able to talk to every person who is diagnosed with COVID right now,” said county Director of Public Health Jill Blake last Wednesday, adding that the information the county is able to collect about new cases has been limited amid the current surge’s high caseloads.



“People in Nevada County are pretty mobile,” said the county’s public health officer, Dr. Scott Kellermann, on local capacity for tracing new cases to particular settings. “People go to the fair and then they stop out and maybe get a bite to eat, or go to a little birthday party or social event, so it’s really hard to pin down a single event as being a super-spreader event.”

Dr. Glennah Trochet, the county’s deputy public health officer, said that the contact tracing that takes place is “more of a forward-looking kind of investigation rather than backward,” meaning it is generally focused on directing diagnosed individuals so that they do not spread the virus to others, rather than finding where the virus may have been transmitted to them. Some circumstances are exceptions to this, according to Trochet, including in congregate settings and places of work.

VACCINE PROGRESS

As of Monday, according to state data on vaccinated status by group, the age group in Nevada County with the highest percentage of vaccinated individuals is those aged 50 to 64, with 69.5% fully vaccinated and an additional 8.6% partially vaccinated.

Until May, the age group in Nevada County with the highest percentage of individuals having received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine was residents aged 65 and older. This group has since then become the second-most vaccinated, with 64.8% fully vaccinated and 7.6% partially vaccinated as of Monday.

Among county residents in the other two eligible age groups, full vaccination was at less than 50% as of Monday.

County residents aged 18 to 49 were 49.2% fully vaccinated and 9.3% partially vaccinated, as of Monday, while eligible residents under 18 — those aged 12 to 17 — were 42.7% fully vaccinated and 10.6% partially vaccinated.

Victoria Penate is a staff writer for Sierra Sun. She can be reached at vpenate@theunion.com

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