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Humboldt County Health Officer Ian Hoffman and his Del Norte counterpart announced Nov. 3 the beginning of a loosening of COVID-19 masking requirements, with the outdoor masking mandated slated to be lifted Nov. 8, while the health officials outlined the benchmarks needed for the full lifting of the local masking order.

The move comes with the county “seeing really good signs of progress in the pandemic,” Hoffman said during a COIVD-19 news conference the same day the loosening was announced. “The numbers are narrowly headed in the right direction.”

But, Hoffman cautioned, the region still has “a little ways to go.”

Humboldt County — in collaboration with other health officials in the region, and specifically in Del Norte County — has set three main measures for lifting masking restrictions and then monitoring the overall COVID situation once that occurs, Hoffman said.

Those are: the county falling into the Centers for Disease Control’s yellow or “moderate” transmission tier on its COVID-19 tracker for three consecutive weeks, reaching an 80 percent vaccination rate and seeing a stabilization in hospitalization numbers.

“The idea here is we want to clearly communicate to our community what we are watching,” Hoffman said.

With Humboldt County sitting firmly in the CDC’s red or “high” transmission tier for months now, that means, at minimum, any consideration of lifting the indoor mask requirements would be at least 21 days out and dependent on a steep decrease in average daily case and test-positivity rates.

Meanwhile, full vaccination rates currently sit just below 60 percent of the population and hospitalizations were still hovering at about 13 this week. And while the latter is well below the Delta surge peak of more than 40, hospitals are still feeling the reverberations.

But Hoffman says he believes the benchmarks are “achievable and attainable goals.” And, while done in consultation with other counties, not all of the standards will be the same.

When the county hits the 70-percent full vaccination mark, Hoffman said it will allow for large, fully vaccinated groups to gather without masks. The county is currently nearing a full vaccination rate of about 60 percent, with another roughly 6 percent of residents partially vaccinated, while residents ages 5 to 11 are newly eligible to receive their shots.

“Eighty percent is also achievable for the community. … I think it’s a realistic goal and a protective goal,” Hoffman said, noting the numbers will be reevaluated in January if the standard is not met by then.

On the hospital side, the evaluation will be a bit more complex, Hoffman said, without specific numbers attached, noting “there’s a lot going into it.”

“It’s really working closely with our partners in health care, in the county and across the state and the places we transfer to, to make sure, if there’s a surge in cases after lifting the mask mandate, we could handle it,” Hoffman said.

If the county’s mandate is lifted, Humboldt will still fall under the state’s health guidance, including “that people who are not fully vaccinated for COVID-19 must continue to wear masks in businesses and indoor public spaces,” according to a news release. Read the full story online. — Kimberly Wear

Posted 11.03.21

A photo of Charlie Moon from Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans, by Jean Pfaelzer. An alley where Chinatown once stood in Eureka will be named Charlie Moon Way in honor of Moon, who resisted the 1885 expulsion of most Chinese residents and remained in Humboldt County. Read the full story at www.northcoastjournal.com. Posted 11.07.21

Photo courtesy of Jean Pfaelzer.

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California began vaccinating young children Nov. 3 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 for emergency use. Humboldt County pharmacies and pediatricians have began scheduling appointments and vaccinating the approximately 10,000 local children who fall into that age group. Posted 11.03.21

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Pedestrian Death: The California Highway Patrol identified the person killed just after 2 a.m. on Nov. 1 when they were hit by a car on U.S. Highway 101 north of Fernbridge as Greg Campbell, 50, of Sausalito. According to CHP, Campbell was walking in the northbound lanes of the freeway when struck by a 2021 Subaru. Posted 11.03.21

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Storm Hits Humboldt: Hundreds of local residents were left without power the morning of Nov. 9 after a storm carrying strong winds blew through the region overnight with wind gusts of more than 50 mph. The largest outage — in the Dow’s Prairie neighborhood of McKinleyville — left Downs Prairie School closed for the day. Posted 11.09.21

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The number of COVID-19 cases confirmed Nov. 8 and Nov. 9, which came on the heels of 118 cases confirmed the week before. Through the first nine days of November, the county’s test-positivity rate was 15.4 percent, far outpacing those of the nation (4.6 percent) and state (2.4 percent). Posted 11.09.21

“I think a lot of people agree that keeping an extra hour of daylight all year makes a lot of sense.” — North Coast Congressmember Jared Huffman, who introduced the bipartisan Daylight Act to allow states to decide for themselves whether to turn their clocks back, as Humboldt County prepared to fall back Nov. 7.

“Woohoo… it’s on and crackin time.” — Siare Keating sharing a Journal Facebook post announcing the start of sport fishing season for Dungeness crab in Humboldt on Nov. 6.