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State Health Officials Monitoring Coronavirus Spikes Sacramento And San Joaquin Counties

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — As Sacramento County reports a "drastic" spike in coronavirus hospitalizations, state officials say it is being monitored alongside eight other counties for increased cases.

On Tuesday, Sacramento County Officials released new data and said there are now 33 people hospitalized with and 14 in the Intensive Care Unit. These numbers reveal a sharp increase from May 27, when the county reported only 8 hospitalized coronavirus patients and 6 in the ICU. At the county's peak, 70 people were hospitalized.

County leaders are urging people to continue social distancing, even as things open up. Officials say they've traced most of the new hospitalizations to private gatherings of family and friends.

As counties continue to reopen as well as increase testing, state officials are monitoring several with spikes this month. They are listed on this watch list.

Both Sacramento and San Joaquin County are on the list. The state lists what's leading to the spike and what actions are being taken:

  • Sacramento County (has variance) has experienced increasing hospitalization. Drivers of this include an increase informal and formal gatherings, transmission among large families, and workplace exposures in the food industry. Key action steps to address concerns include: 1) increase messaging on the importance of social distancing, not gathering, and personal protection measures; 2) increase access to community testing; 3) conduct workplace evaluation and testing; and 4) targeted outreach to ethnic communities and provision of language-specific educational materials.
  • San Joaquin County (has variance) is experiencing increasing hospitalization and limited hospital capacity. Drivers of this include 1) community transmission due to gatherings, 2) workplace transmission followed by household transmission; 3) skilled nursing facility (SNF) outbreaks; and 4) increase in widespread testing. Action steps to address concerns include: 1) increase public messaging on the importance of personal protection measures and the risks involved with mass gatherings in multiple languages; 2) continuing to provide Infection Preventionists expertise to assist SNFs on infection control practices, ensure baseline testing and proper use of personal protection equipment (PPE).

Other counties include Fresno, Imperial, Kings, Los Angeles, San Bernadino, San Clara, and Tulare.

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