In a small county in California, 13 people died of COVID-19 last week and 12 died in a nursing home last week. Nationwide

Later this Tuesday’s update, health centers in Amador County confirmed another seven deaths from the virus.

By Thursday, the county’s designated death toll increased to 11 again. A week ago it was zero.

The county’s official death toll was 11, updated from a public health center that Friday night, but state data reported that at least 13 coronavirus deaths in Amador were in senior living units. ing.

Kitcarson Nursing Rehabilitation Center, a skilled nursing facility in Jackson City, updated its website’s front page with 10 people killed by the virus as of Wednesday and another 39 positive for COVID-19 At that point. According to the company’s website, this property has 199 beds.

The California Department of Health’s dashboard shows COVID-19 activity in skilled state nursing homes, listing 12 resident deaths in Kit Carson out of 48 cumulative positive cases of residents, including 39 of them. Is considered active on Friday afternoon. However, there are unexplained differences in these numbers, as the total number of infections shows only nine inactive cases. This is less than 12 deaths.

In addition, Kit Carson’s website shows that 34 employees of the facility had the virus as of Wednesday, with 7 active and 27 recovered. No one is dead. On Friday’s state dashboard, there were only 19 positive cases for employees.

Also on Friday, the California Department of Social Services updated the list of licensed living support facilities where COVID-19 activity was confirmed. Amador Residential Care Facility in Jackson: The only entry in Amador County has been added. The facility, which has a capacity of 49 residents according to its website, did not appear on the list Thursday, but appeared on Friday with the death of at least one resident. Living support facilities provide longer stays, but at a lower medical level than skilled care facilities.

The database of COVID-19 activities at living support facilities masks exact numbers below a certain threshold as a privacy measure. As such, the Amador Residential Care Facility specifies that at least one and less than 11 resident deaths have been reported. There were less than 11 positive cases of residents, less than 11 positive cases of staff, and no staff deaths.

News releases and coronavirus updates sent by Amana County public health official Diana Evensen on Friday night did not mention either Kit Carson or Amador Residential Care in their 70s.

While the county’s official statement and data update do not mention the facility by name, the general outbreak of the Jackson epidemic is via the COVID-19 news release twice a week in the county, which dates back to late July. Can be tracked

First, on July 21, the county noted that two cases were identified, “related to the meeting environment in a skilled nursing facility.” The county stated that by the next update on July 24, five rally settings in Amador County had “one skilled nurse and one state corrections employee”. ..

In the July 28th news release, there was no mention of intensive care units. However, on July 31 and August 4, the county found that the overall number of cases of COVID-19 “includes outbreaks in skilled nursing homes” and there is no specific total number of infections for that outbreak. I pointed out that.

Finally, in statements on Tuesday and Friday, the county referred to “outbreaks”-multiple-“in skilled nursing and care facilities.”

The county has not publicly announced that the vast majority (and apparently all) of the dead are in a skilled nursing environment, but officials have found that all deceased are over the age of 60 and have health complications.

Kit Carson has already ranked 12 dead among the most deadly outbreaks in Northern California nursing homes during a pandemic, and still has more than 30 active cases.

The total number of Amador infections also surged, rising 230% in 16 days. The number has increased from 89 confirmed in the July 28 update to 208 on Friday. Cases believed to be active throughout Amador County increased from 29 in late July to 52 this week, but declined to 48 on Friday’s update.

Jackson, a county in Amador County with less than 5,000 inhabitants, has aggregated a total of 100 COVID-19 cases as of Thursday’s update, at least 67 of which have come since July 28. ..

In other words, more than 1 in 50 Jackson’s inhabitants have been positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, and at least 1 in 75 positive for the past two and a half weeks.

The seven deaths announced Tuesday were “residents of Jackson and Pine Grove, in the ’60s, ’80s and ’90s, each at increased risk,” the Amador County said in a news release. In contrast to Pine Grove, one of the deceased lived in Jackson. The county oversight committee held moments of silence during the day’s meeting to honor the memories of the deceased.

Currently, eight patients are hospitalized in Amador County and one Amador resident is admitted outside the county.

Thirteen deaths in Amador county include Northern California and the Bay Area, including Shasta (10 dead on Friday morning), Butte (8), Santa Cruz (6), Humboldt (4), and Elle. The number of deaths from coronaviruses has exceeded in many counties in the United States. Dorado (2 people). Populations of these counties range from 100,000 to 250,000, with three to seven times more inhabitants than Amador.

In a news release earlier this week, public health officials in Amador County said that the three major “spread routes” in the region are multifamily housing that includes skilled nursing homes and nursing homes. Family or workplace infections; although not defined by the county, “community infections” are usually people who are publicly infected with a virus from a source that is not specifically known.

The county’s Tuesday news release said the expansion could “add Amador County to the state data watch list if the state resumes watch list activity.” This could mean the forced closure of gyms, places of worship, nail salons, barbershops, and other personal care businesses that are currently allowed to operate in Amador County, or in some cases move to outdoor operations. I mean.

In fact, the placement of watchlists is almost guaranteed. A recent Bee analysis of per capita COVID-19 data showed that Amador was included in eight counties that crossed the new case threshold set by the California Public Health Department last week due to widespread data issues. It turned out that I acknowledged earlier this month.

Amador County has more than tripled its 100 watchlist criteria per 100,000 inhabitants over the past 14 days to 304 per 100,000 as of state data updated Thursday.

The watchlist remains unchanged on the status of Jackson Rancheria, a tribal casino a few miles north of Jackson.

California tribal casinos are considered sovereigns and are not subject to shutdown orders from Governor Gavin Newtham or the state. Some health experts, such as infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Ching Hong of the University of California at San Francisco, said that he was a big concern about the casino he called a “very risky” environment for the spread of the virus. Sacramento Bee has reported earlier this month that he had previously reported.

Most tribal casinos across the state have agreed to close in the first weeks of the pandemic, but almost all of them have resumed operations since late May or early June, making changes to their operations. It was

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The Amador County casino, owned and operated by the Miuk Indian Jackson Rancheria band, was reopened with a pandemic closure on June 8. As of Friday, it has mandatory masks, temperature screening on entry, social distance requirements and Plexiglas barriers. That website.

According to the county, Amador’s official COVID-19 infection count does not include prisoners imprisoned at Mule Creek State Jail. However, these numbers are available from the California Rehabilitation and Corrections Department. As of Friday morning, the CDCR prison COVID-19 tracker identified 28 infections currently active in Mule Creek and 10 recovered cases and one prisoner released while still infected. I showed you.

The CDCR also reports that 13 Mule Creek employees tested positive during the pandemic. Four of them are back in work.

(Dale Kasler of Sacramento Bee contributed to this report.)

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