Nine California counties including Santa Clara County are reporting a spike in new COVID-19 cases or new hospitalizations of confirmed patients.
These cases are being traced to Memorial Day gatherings, nursing homes and prisons. In Sacramento County there are now 33 patients in the hospital and health officials say the spike is tied to recent birthday parties and a funeral.
The state is monitoring several counties including Santa Clara.
The spikes are to be expected according to several modeling studies, including a recent one from Johns Hopkins University.
“Each of them are predicting that there will be a second surge that will happen late summer and into fall,” says Marin County public health officer Dr. Matt Willis. But he says that models have been wrong before and does not currently see a need to slow down the county’s reopening plan.
“We need to be adaptive and flexible, recognizing that if we do see surges we might just pause and not move forward as quickly,” Dr. Willis said at a county Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday. “We might even need to go backwards.”
Marin is set to allow car dealerships, real estate offices and indoor retail to reopen on Friday, possibly with indoor dining, hotels and motels, gyms and hair salons not far behind.
The county has reported 625 cases total and 17 deaths. Two people are currently in the hospital. Dr. Willis himself is among the hundreds of cases, having contracted the virus early on in the pandemic and he has since recovered.
The Canal neighborhood in San Rafael, where many of the city’s low-income residents live, is among the hardest hit in the county, as is the county’s Latinx population. Latinx residents make up 16% of the county’s population but an overwhelming 64% of cases.
San Quentin State Prison has also reported 15 cases, which are not included in the county’s statistics.
