Count the lives lost in the bay area during a coronavirus pandemic

Although deaths remained low in the early stages of the pandemic, the winter surge overcrowded the ICU, resulting in an unmanageable number of inpatients and the loss of thousands of lives.

Mortality is currently declining, and there seems to be hope in the horizon as vaccinations increase and infections decrease. However, it provides little comfort to families who have lost their loved ones during a pandemic.

You can get a glimpse of the amazing numbers and the lives of the deceased.

By the end of March last year, 69 deaths had been reported in the Bay Area, with a total of less than 600 at the end of June, about five months after the first California case was reported. After the April surge, the actual death toll fell in both May and June, to less than 150 per month.

Patricia DaudThe 57-year-old died at home on February 6 without warning, and doctors speculated that it was a major heart attack and told his family that he was probably dead before hitting the floor. But that was before the coronavirus was known to have landed in the United States. It was not until April that Trisha was determined to be infected with COVID-19. Back in that, she turned out to be the first COVID death in the United States.

Fremont’s Lam Research auditor, Daud, traveled extensively but hadn’t left the country for several months before her death. “There were no symptoms and nothing. Her dad spoke to Chronicles from the porch of the Mountain View house where Tricia grew up. After graduating from St. Francis High School and San Jose State University, she was a husband and an adult. I left my daughter.

Emma PatinoThe 84-year-old is a resident of Hayward’s Gateway Care & Rehabilitation Center and was reported on April 8 with news of a COVID-19 outbreak at the facility. Union City Council member Jaime Patino hurriedly checked her grandmother Emma Patino. He was relieved to see her through the window. At first glance it looks healthy and healthy. But when he returned late that night, she had a slight cough. She was immediately tested positive and was taken to the hospital two days later. Before she died on April 13, the family had little time to say goodbye.

Just as California seemed to flatten the curve, a summer surge struck, resulting in the first major surge in incidents and deaths. In the Bay Area, 243 people were reported dead in July, 305 in August and 396 in September. Nearly 1,000 lives were lost in three months. But at least the surge was over and the numbers were moving in the positive direction.

Mira Handle Lee, 68 years old, was born in San Francisco and raised in Los Altos. In 1982, she became the first woman to open a winery in California under her own name. Handley Cellars in Anderson Valley has become the destination for Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Gewürztraminer, which Handley has been manufacturing since the mid-1980s. She cultivated her own vines, did almost everything else in the 29-acre plot, and helped map her area in the process. She died on July 25, two weeks after her diagnosis of COVID-19, but Handley Cellars is run by her daughter, Milla Louisa “Lulu” McLellan.

Gilbert “Bobby” PolancoThe 55-year-old was the first guard to die of COVID-19 in San Quentin State Prison. COVID-19 destroyed the facility after a well-documented failure by the authorities. Raised in San Jose, Polanco was hired as a security guard in 1987, retired due to a disability in 2005, and returned as a sergeant in 2011. He died on August 9th. Bloomfield said in a statement.

As the summer faded, the number of cases leveled off and the number of reported deaths leveled off. The Bay Area reopening movement was in full swing, with less than 200 deaths reported in November, but experts warned of a new surge due to the impending cold weather and holiday gatherings. Reported deaths more than tripled in December, with a total of more than 2,500 deaths across the Bay Area by the end of 2020.

Everyone wanted 2020 to finally end, but the New Year was even worse than the previous year. Deaths, often weeks behind the case rate, increased to about 1,700 in January, the worst month since the pandemic began. The February total fell by more than 500, but was still more than five times the October and November averages. In the last two months, the total number of virus-related deaths reported in the Bay Area has more than doubled.

Berta Berkovich Kohut, 99 years old, grew up in Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia is the daughter of a tailor who taught her to sew. When she was sent to Auschwitz at the age of 20, the skill probably saved her life. Under brand number 4245, she got a job making dresses for the wife of a Nazi officer. She and her sister survived the death camp, which claimed all other members of her extended family. After her publishing career, she moved to Marin County to be near her son Tom Alleton. At her home in San Rafael, she hosts a luncheon for Holocaust survivors and is the main source of information for the non-fiction account “Auschwitz Dressmaking” scheduled for this fall. “She was a fighter so I was confident she would win this fight against COVID because she beat so many people in her life,” Alleton said. She died on February 14th.

The Bay Area reported more than 20 deaths per day in the first week of March. This is the pace that leads to more than 600 deaths that month. It’s still high, but the number has improved significantly from at least the last two months. We hope that increased vaccination and continued diligence to follow the CDC safety guidelines will continue that trend and eliminate the loss of life.