Six more people in Shasta County died of COVID-19, Shasta County Health and Human Services announced last week.
They were:
- A man in his 50s
- A man in his 60s
- A man in his 70s
- A man and two women in their 80s
Their deaths bring the total number of Shasta County residents known to have died from COVID to 670 people: 294 women, 376 men.
Case numbers are hard to track since home test results are seldom reported, Public Health said, but community spread went up in late July and early August.
- From July 26 to Aug. 1, Shasta County’s test positivity rate — the percentage of tests that came back positive for the virus from state labs — reached 7.5%, according to the California Department of Public Health.
- That’s up from 6.3% from July 19 to 25, but still lower than outbreak in early to mid-July.
Those percentages represent moderate levels of outbreak, according to the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
While outbreak went slightly down during the second half of July, the number of people sick enough with the virus to be hospitalized went up, according to the county. From July 15 to Aug. 1, COVID patients numbered 38 to 49 people per day — numbers not seen since the end of the winter omicron outbreak in early March.
As many as eight people per day were sick enough to be in intensive care units, up from zero to six ICU patients per day during the first half of July.
Summer brought good news, too. The county reported fewer COVID deaths in June (3 people) and July (8 people) than it had per month since last August. While those deaths may have occurred earlier in the year — cause-of-death investigations can take weeks, the county said — those numbers spell a drop in the overall seriousness of some COVID cases.
A reason why fewer COVID patients are dying from the disease in 2022 than in 2021 is more people are vaccinated against the virus, the CDC said.
Another reason is COVID treatments are more effective, the CDC said.
So far this year, strains like omicron have been less deadly than those that hit populations in 2021. More deadly strains in 2021 included the delta variant, which caused widespread outbreak throughout the North State and nationwide in late summer and early fall.
For more information on the coronavirus in Shasta County including where to get vaccinated or tested go to bit.ly/3yhe91Y.
Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and entertainment stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica in the Get Out! Nor Cal recreation Facebook group. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
