COVID-19 cases fall in Butte County – Chico Enterprise-Record
OROVILLE – COVID-19 cases for each day of a week are on the decline in Butte County, Lisa Almaguer, communications manager for Butte County Public Health, said Tuesday.
Butte County COVID-19 hospitalizations are starting to trend downward, but are still higher than desired, Almaguer said. COVID-19-related deaths also tend to be lagging behind increases in cases and hospitalizations, which is why Butte County is now starting to see a small increase in death rates, she said.
“These case rates do not include those who test themselves at home or those who choose not to test,” Almaguer said. “They are only from PCR tests that are taken and then sent to a laboratory.”
Since the case rate data only includes polymerase chain reaction tests that are taken and then verified by a laboratory, the data becomes less meaningful, Almaguer said. But the trends created by case frequency data have become more meaningful in determining whether cases are up or down in Butte County. The number of reported cases is an underestimation of actual cases, Almaguer said.
According to Butte County COVID-19 dashboard, there were 67 people admitted for COVID-19 on Tuesday, February 22nd. On the same day, there were 314 people in isolation. There are 361 COVID-19-related deaths in Butte County as of Friday.
She said the requirement for mandatory indoor masking has been changed to a strong recommendation on February 16, and these include masking for unvaccinated people in all indoor environments and businesses, such as retail stores, cinemas, gyms and more. There is continued masking of all individuals, regardless of vaccination status in higher risk environments, such as public transportation, health facilities, hospitals and more.
“The state has announced that they will review and re-evaluate the masking requirements by the end of this month,” Almaguer said. “So things can change, depending on what that assessment tells us.”
Whether COVID-19 will be called an endemic or not is not yet decided, Almaguer said. The biggest change is that Butte County Public Health would be smaller in an emergency state. This will include information on prevention, where to get vaccinated, how to prevent disease and the spread of disease.
“We hope it reaches the point where we treat COVID as we do any other communicable disease and respond with appropriate public health measures,” Almaguer said. “Instead of being in a constant state of emergency.”
Butte County Public Heath has identified the sub-variant of omicron, which is the BA.2 variant, in the county, Almaguer said. The sub-variant is more transferable than the original omicron variant, but researchers are still learning more about it.
“At present, we do not know whether it causes more serious illness or not,” Almaguer said.
Butte County Public Health continues to encourage residents to take steps to prevent disease. These steps include being fully vaccinated and, if warranted, being boosted. Almaguer said being boosted has been shown to reduce the severity of the disease and hospitalizations. Other steps include continuing to wear a mask, staying home if you are sick and washing your hands.