NEWS
Omicron Surging
With case rates skyrocketing, impacts loom By Thadeus Greenson thad@@northcoastjournal.com
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mid an unprecedented surge in local cases, Health Officer Ian Hoffman informed the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 10 that he will be leaving his post March 4, having accepted a job that allows him to return to clinical work. “This decision does not come easy to me as this is the most important and impactful work I’ve ever had in my medical career,” wrote Hoffman, who was hired by the board in December of 2020. “The people I work with are dedicated and kind, supportive and have a love for their community that is strong. However, I am not able to continue in this full-time role as the health officer and maintain the worklife balance that my family needs from me. My family is the most important thing to me, and I must show up for them first.” Hoffman’s announcement comes as the county faces a large spike in cases, fueled by holiday gatherings and the highly contagious Omicron variant. As the Journal went to press Jan. 11, the county had reported a staggering 1,554 new cases of the virus so far this month, breaking and re-breaking numerous records. Most recently, the county set a new single-day case record Jan. 11 with 223 new cases of the virus confirmed, eclipsing a record tally set just a week prior. Local test-positivity rates and other
indicators signal the virus is endemic in the local community, with impacts beginning to reverberate. At least two local schools have been forced to close and pivot back to remote learning temporarily amid staffing shortages caused by infections, while St. Joseph Hospital issued a press release Jan. 11 noting that the Omicron variant has “increased disruption to hospital staffing” and “reminding” the public not to come to its emergency room looking for COVID-19 tests or vaccines. Early studies indicate the Omicron variant both infects and is transmitted by fully vaccinated people at roughly the same rates as with their unvaccinated counterparts, hastening its spread through the country, state and county. However, public health officials and doctors continue to report that the vaccines remain very effective at preventing severe illness and hospitalization, especially in people who have received their booster doses. Locally, just 42 percent of eligible residents have received their boosters, according to a report by CalMatters. Across the country, case rates have skyrocketed, causing widespread disruption across virtually all sectors, as staffing shortages caused by people isolating with the virus have led to everything from shuttered businesses and canceled flights to closed schools and local governments operating with skeleton staffs.
COVID-19 Vaccine
Booster
Humboldt County Public Health Laboratory Assistant Lauren Sapienza prepares a master mix used for COVID-19 sample processing. File
Locally, cases have surged sharply since Jan. 3, when the county confirmed that two testing samples taken Dec. 19 and Dec. 21 had come back positive for Omicron, indicating the variant had been circulating locally for weeks. Cases and test-positivity rates quickly ballooned. After recording a test-positivity rate of 10.1 percent in July — the highest for any month to that point since the pandemic began — the rate in Humboldt County jumped to 15.9 percent in August and 15.2 percent in September as the more contagious Delta variant became widespread. In October, the surge eased and the county’s test-positivity rate dipped to 12.1 percent before rising to 14.2 percent in November and December. So far in January, it has more than doubled, spiking to 29.3 percent.
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Over the seven days leading up to Jan. 11, Humboldt County had confirmed 966 new cases, or approximately 102.2 per day per 100,000 residents, while recording a test-positivity rate of 25.5 percent. California, meanwhile, had confirmed an average of 166.3 new cases daily per 100,000 residents with a test-positivity rate of 22.4 percent, while the nation had seen an average of 423 new cases confirmed daily per 100,000 residents and a test-positivity rate of 25.9 percent over the same period. While early data indicates the Omicron variant, a strain of the virus with more than 50 mutations that was discovered in South Africa in November, generally causes less severe illness, resulting in a lower rate of hospitalizations, the cumulative impact of the national surge has slammed some hospitals.
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NORTH COAST JOURNAL • Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022 • northcoastjournal.com
