There are 60 Shasta County residents in the hospital with Coronavirus, 11 of them in the I.C.U. They’re among 596 currently active cases estimated by public health. Thousands of people are under quarantine orders due to possible exposure. The death toll is 47. An additional 117 cases were reported on Wednesday, for a total so far of 4,882. No new numbers will be released until Monday afternoon. Shasta County residents over age 65 represent 10% of COVID cases, but a great majority of the deaths. Public health says everyone needs to take precautions to protect the people they care about, especially the elderly and otherwise medically vulnerable.
Shasta County took almost 7 months to reach 1,000 cases. The second thousand was reached in 28 days, the third thousand in 16 days, and the fourth thousand cases happened in just one week. Redding hospitals report that they’re handling the surge so far but many elective surgeries are being postponed, not just because of hospital space, but because the recent outbreak has affected hospital staff as well.
California officials have approved stricter new safety regulations for employers. CAL/Osha now requires businesses to educate employees on ways to prevent infection, provide free personal protective equipment and offer free COVID-19 testing to all employees if three or more employees are infected with the coronavirus within a 14-day period.
Tehama County has had 1,589 cases and 25 deaths.
Trinity County has had 158 cases.
Siskiyou County has had 624 cases and 2 deaths.
Butte County has had 3,853 cases and 59 deaths.
Glenn County has had 884 cases and 8 deaths.
Humboldt County has had 850 cases and 9 deaths.
Lassen County has had two deaths among their 375 cases in the community and one death among the 1,398 cases in prison.
Modoc County has reached 143 cases.
Widespread testing is a vital component in slowing the spread and getting Shasta County out of the purple tier. There have been 83,021 negative tests. a new state testing site has been set up at the Boggs Building on Breslauer Way. Also, a traveling testing team will alternate between HHSA Offices in Shasta Lake, Anderson and Enterprise. Appointments for any of these sites can be made at lhi.care/covidtesting or visit shastaready.org.
California broke a record Sunday with more than 7,400 Coronavirus hospitalizations as counties statewide prepared for stricter COVID-19 restrictions to take effect amid surging cases and Thanksgiving travel. Health officials are preparing for a wave of cases in the next two or three weeks that could be tied to holiday gatherings.
There’s a lot of information at shastaready.org, the Facebook Coronavirus Information Center and cdc.gov.