SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The numbers don’t lie when it comes to the rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations. Cases have been rising steadily since July 4, increasing nearly 400% in many areas.
Jamie White, an epidemiology program manager with Sacramento County Public Health, has seen this firsthand.
“By July 1, about a month ago, we had 61 cases, and then just this last Thursday when we updated the numbers, we saw that there were 200 that were hospitalized within Sacramento County with COVID-19. So, we’ve seen a four-fold increase in just a little over a month in hospitalizations locally,” White said.
For context, she said, at the summer peak in July 2020, that the county had 281 cases at one time. She said that the unvaccinated are the large majority of those who are being admitted to local hospitals.
“Only 6 of the 132 hospitalized in June were vaccinated,” White said.
White said a new worry has also emerged.
“One thing that we have found a little concerning when we look at some of the demographics is that age group between 18 and 49, about 41% of the hospitalized patients over the last 30 days have been in that age group,” she said.
Dr. Michael Vollmer, an infectious disease specialist at Kaiser Permanente, said things are different because of the vaccine, but that fact almost makes it harder for healthcare workers.
“It’s hard for us to see when a majority of the patients coming into the hospital setting are unvaccinated and missed their opportunity to get vaccinated against the virus,” Vollmer said.
He said the numbers are worse locally.
“We’ve noticed that vaccination rates are lower than other parts of the state. You know, vaccination rates in some areas as low as 40% puts it on par with other parts of the country where you see other big surges of COVID-19 in Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, Texas,” Vollmer said.
“You know that 30-40% level is really too low to control disease. And so we’ve seen higher rates of COVID testing and higher rates of hospitalization,” he added.
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