COVID Update – January 29, 2021

01/29/2021

By DDTV

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We write to provide our weekly update related to the County of Santa Clara’s COVID-19 response efforts. As was announced today by the County, the one-year mark since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Santa Clara County approaches on Sunday, and another unfortunate milestone has been surpassed: yesterday, the case count for the county topped the 100,000 mark. While vaccine supplies remain the top concern for the County, we continue to ramp up capacity and build the infrastructure needed to vaccinate all residents age 16 and older as soon as possible. To date, healthcare providers in Santa Clara County have received a total of 281,578 vaccine doses, and there are more than 58,000 vaccination appointments scheduled in the County in next seven days.

The County is also awaiting clarity and information from the State of California following this week’s announcement of a shift in strategy toward a “third-party administrator” for COVID-19 vaccine distribution statewide, and modifying its criteria for who should be vaccinated in what order. Despite these challenges, vaccine providers have continued to make steady progress in vaccinating residents, and the County Health System is operating three mass vaccination sites and multiple clinic locations, as well as a mobile vaccine clinic focused on long-term care facilities like nursing homes. The County continues to explore new options for mass vaccination sites and community-based locations, many in partnership with other entities.

COVID-19 Cases in Santa Clara County

This past week, the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department reported 191 more individuals in the county who contracted COVID-19 have lost their lives. This brings the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the county to 1,372. As of Friday, January 29^th, the total case count had reached 100,997, and the 7 day rolling average of new cases (based on specimen collection date) was at 776 cases per day.

As of Friday, there were 487 COVID positive patients hospitalized in Santa Clara County (down from 585 the prior week and 638 the week before that). Of these hospitalizations, 133 were in the ICU. COVID positive patients now occupy 38% of all ICU beds, and just 15% of beds are currently available. These ICU bed capacity numbers already factor in surge beds that are staffed. More data can be found through the Public Health Department’s Data Dashboards.

State Moved the County of Santa Clara Into Purple Tier (Tier One) on January 25^th

On January 25, 2021, the California Department of Public Health announced that the Bay Area Region is no longer subject to the State’s Regional Stay At Home Order. However, Santa Clara County continues to experience an alarming rate of COVID-19 transmission, and hospital and ICU capacities remain extremely limited in the county and region. The danger COVID-19 poses to our community has not subsided, and the County Health Officer urges businesses, entities, and residents to continue exercising the utmost caution even as certain restrictions are lifted by the State.

Effective January 25, 2021, all businesses, entities, and individuals in Santa Clara County are subject to the restrictions in the Purple Tier of the State’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, and to additional restrictions that the County Health Officer has imposed. As always, businesses, entities, and individuals must follow both the State and County Health Officer Orders, and where there is a conflict between the two, the stricter rules must be followed. Following this announcement, the County prepared an Executive Summary of the Revisions to the Health Officer’s Mandatory Directives, which includes a list of the key rules under the current local orders that are applicable to all businesses and remain in effect – see attached.

Updates on County Vaccination Efforts

The COVID-19 vaccine program continued its rollout this week. On Tuesday, the County announced that the County of Santa Clara’s Health System was expanding COVID-19 vaccinations to individuals 65 and older, following the State of California’s current guidance for vaccine allocation. County residents 65 and older could begin scheduling appointments for openings beginning on Wednesday, January 27 and thereafter. The County is also partnering with community clinics to ensure that residents can access vaccines in community-based settings, and has launched a pilot mobile vaccination clinic to ensure vaccine access for staff and residents of long-term care facilities, where residents are among the most at risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19. In addition, to assist residents who lack internet or computer access with scheduling appointments, the County has hosted appointment sign-up fairs in community locations in East San José, Gilroy, and Cupertino, and plans several more in the coming weeks.

Following the State’s priority phases and tiers, each healthcare system decides what categories of patients they have the capacity to vaccinate at any given time. Our understanding of the current landscape of other providers in our community is that: Stanford and El Camino Health are offering vaccinations to eligible healthcare personnel and individuals 65 or older; Kaiser, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and El Camino Health are offering vaccination to healthcare personnel and those 75 and older; and Regional Medical Center and Good Samaritan are only offering vaccinations to healthcare personnel. The County’s COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard is updated daily with information about vaccine allocation and administration by healthcare providers throughout the county. The latest updates on vaccine eligibility and how to schedule an appointment are available on the County’s website at sccfreevax.org.

Board of Supervisors Received COVID-19 Staff Report on January 26^th

On Tuesday, January 26, the Board of Supervisors received a presentation from the Public Health Officer and Administration related to the current status of COVID-19 in Santa Clara County and the Changes in the State’s Health Orders. Dr. Jeff Smith, County Executive, reported that case counts and COVID positive hospitalized patients had been elevated through the beginning of January, but were declining, but that lab-confirmed COVID-19 deaths had remained high since November. Regarding vaccinations, Dr. Marty Fenstersheib reported the unfortunate reality that State guidance is still changing frequently, and that vaccine availability in the near, medium, and long term is largely unknown, but that 126,209 first doses of the vaccines had been administrated in the County. Dr. Ahmad Kamal provided an update on local healthcare system preparedness, highlighting the fact that while COVID-19 hospitalizations have recently decreased, they are still at a level that are five times higher than in October. Dr. Kamal also reported that COVID-19 hospitalizations are likely to remain high for some time, given that in the past, hospital census has taken 2-3 times longer for it to come down than it has taken to go up.

Click here to view the full meeting agenda and related materials, and the webcast of the presentation and discussion is available here.

County COVID Testing Locations

The community testing program operated by Santa Clara Valley Medical Center continues to offer extensive drop-in and appointment-based COVID-19 testing at several locations across the county. Residents can book an appointment for the Fairgrounds or the various rotating city sites in Vietnamese, Chinese, Spanish, or English. Visit www.sccfreetest.org to search for an available site by City or Date, or to see the complete list of available County testing sites.

Additional Community-Based and State-Operated Testing Options

Roots Community Health Center and Gardner Health Services continue to organize free, community-based drop-in COVID-19 testing events every Wednesday. Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI) provides similar community-based testing every Friday at their Story Road site. No appointments are necessary, and all individuals are served regardless of insurance or immigration status.

Roots Community Health Center: Antioch Baptist Church parking lot, 268 E. Julian St, San José, 95112. COVID-19 testing offered Wednesday from 10am to 3pm. For more information or to pre-register see here or call 408-490-4710.
Gardner Health Services: Mexican Heritage Plaza, 1700 Alum Rock Avenue, San José, 95116. Testing offered Wednesday from 1pm to 7pm. For more information, call 408-457-7100.
AACI Health Center: Story Road Clinic: 749 Story Rd, #50, San Jose CA 95122. Testing offered Friday from 9am-12pm. For more information, call 408-975-2763.

In addition, there are several testing sites now operated OptumServe, a State contractor. The drive through sites previously run by Verily’s Project Baseline at Independence and Mount Pleasant High Schools have been transferred to OptumServe. These sites are free but require appointments. Visit here or call (888) 634-1123 to schedule an appointment:

Independence High School (drive through): 617 N. Jackson Ave., San José. Testing offered Sunday through Friday from 7am to 7pm.
Mount Pleasant High School (drive through): 1750 S. White Road, San José. Testing offered Monday through Saturday from 7am to 7pm.
Gilroy Civic Center: 7351 Church St., Gilroy. Testing offered Friday through Tuesday from 7am to 7pm.
Gavilan College: Social Science Building, 5055 Santa Teresa Blvd, Gilroy CA 95020. Testing offered Tuesday through Thursday from 7 am to 7 pm
Grange in Morgan Hill: 40 E 4th Street, Morgan Hill CA 95037. Testing offered Friday from 7 am to 7 pm.
Valley Water (Mobile Van): 5750 Almaden Expressway, San Jose CA 95118. Testing offered Wednesday and Thursday from 7 am to 7 pm
James Lick High School: 2951 Alum Rock Ave., San José. Testing offered Tuesday through Saturday from 7am to 7pm.