STOCKTON, Calif — In the year since the Covid-19 pandemic began, it has left an indelible imprint on the lives of those in the Central Valley. With the population heavily Hispanic in San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties, Latinos have been hit hard with COVID.
"There's been so many ups and downs. I can't even remember what the rules or the guidance's were even a few months ago. That's how quickly everything moves with this pandemic," said San Joaquin County Health Officer Dr. Maggie Park.
Park says the worst part of the virus is all of the deaths. In San Joaquin County, 1,212 people have lost their lives as part of 68,036 COVID cases.
In Stanislaus County, there have been 974 deaths and 51,748 cases.
"My overall thoughts are that we lost over 1,000 lives and that's the saddest part," Park said.
Lives lost include 64-year-old Miguel Guitan. The husband, father of four and locomotive engineer lost his life to COVID in December.
"Kind, generous, hard-working, very thoughtful," said his wife, Alice Guitan, a few days after her husband's death.
82-year-old Maria Lopez, a grandmother of four and retired cannery worker from Newman, died from COVID last April.
"I was just praying that she didn't have it," granddaughter Nonette Garcia said last spring. "When they told me, everything just shut down."
While not the case in San Joaquin County, in Stanislaus County the Hispanic population has been disproportionally impacted. The population is 47% Latino in Stanislaus, yet 63% of the overall cases are Latino.
Stanislaus County community activist Yamilet Valladolid says the death rate has exposed, not just the need for more accessible healthcare, but much more for vulnerable communities.
"It's not just, let's open up a health clinic here. No, it's also ensuring that there's access to technology, access to a safe place for them to be able to walk into the clinic or drive into the clinic," said Valladolid.
So, what will take to get us out of the pandemic moving forward? Both Dr. Park and Valladolid agree it's about getting vaccinated.
The fact that San Joaquin County is still in the COVID "purple tier" shows the case numbers still remain too high to be dropped into the less restrictive "red tier."
"People still need to continue to stay on their guard and do their best to take it seriously. And, obviously, the vaccine is what is going to get us out of this pandemic," said Park.
