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‘The good news is the vaccination rate’: Health officials discuss Nevada County’s COVID numbers, vaccine progress

State officials have seen a rise in Nevada County’s testing positivity rate.

In a Q&A Wednesday, county Deputy Public Health Officer Dr. Glennah Trochet noted that, according to this week’s state update, Nevada County’s test positivity rate was 2.9%, and the rate of new cases per day, per 100,000 residents, was 4.3.

Statewide, the test positivity and new case rates are 0.8% and 1.8, respectively, according to the data released this week.



“So we’re still higher than the state, although lower than we had been,” said Trochet.

County Public Health Director Jill Blake said at the Q&A that the state “is still reaching out to counties if they’re seeing any kind of significant increase in their testing positivity rate,” and that she had received a message from the state Wednesday informing her that this was the case in Nevada County.



Although the county’s COVID-19 testing site went down from being utilized at 27% of its capacity to 22%, said Blake, the state reached out to local health officials to inform them that the county’s test positivity had increased 6% from the previous week.

“The good news is the vaccination rate,” said Trochet.

As of this week, according to the state’s data, just over 49% of eligible Nevada County residents have been fully vaccinated.

The county’s COVID-19 vaccine clinic will continue to operate at 1345 Whispering Pines Lane in Grass Valley at least through the end of the month, said Trochet, although it may remain for longer.

People may make an appointment or walk in, said Trochet, and the clinic is now offering the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Appointments can be made through MyTurn.

“Our work isn’t done yet,” said Blake. “People who are not vaccinated are still vulnerable to COVID, but we have accomplished a lot, and I think the accomplishments should indeed be celebrated.”

As of Wednesday, 92,661 doses have been administered to Nevada County residents, according to the state’s COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard.

Although Tuesday marked the lifting of the statewide Blueprint for a Safer Economy tier system — within which placement on a given tier involved a county’s rates of test positivity and new COVID-19 cases adjusted for population, updated by the state each week — the state provided an update this week, stating that the figures are now solely for informational purposes.

Victoria Penate is a staff writer for The Union, a sister publication of the Sierra Sun. She can be reached at vpenate@theunion.com.

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