Mendocino, Lake counties expect to remain in current reopening tiers until June

With a month to go before the state intends to ditch its four color-coded reopening tiers and fully reopen on June 15, Mendocino and Lake counties are expected to remain in their respective stages until that date, the counties’ health officers said.

In Mendocino County, new coronavirus cases began to tick up after the county moved into the least restrictive yellow tier, denoting minimal viral transmission, about two weeks ago. Still, Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren said average daily case rates have not been consistently high enough to threaten knocking the county back to the orange stage.

Mendocino County’s virus case rate — one of three key metrics state health officials use to decide reopening stages for California’s 58 counties — as of Friday stood at 3.9 new daily cases per 100,000 people, according to state data.

That’s higher than the 2 new daily cases per 100,000 required for the yellow tier. But the county would have to exceed that threshold for two consecutive weeks before falling back to the more restrictive orange stage.

Lake County, which is still squarely in the orange tier of moderate COVID-19 transmission, has seen its case rate stay mostly flat in recent weeks, reaching 3.7 cases per per 100,000 people as of Friday.

“I would anticipate staying in the orange tier for the rest of the next month until the tiers disappear next month,” Dr. Evan Bloom, the county’s acting health officer, told the county Board of Supervisors this week.

Bloom has taken over the health officer role on an interim basis while county officials seek a replacement for Dr. Gary Pace, who stepped down as Lake County’s health officer in mid-April. Bloom, an emergency physician at St. Helena Hospital in Clearlake, was previously the county’s deputy health officer.

On Tuesday, Sonoma County failed to advance out of the orange tier due to a slight bump in new coronavirus infections. Marin and Napa counties also remain in the orange stage.

Like most of the rest of the state, Mendocino and Lake counties have seen demand for COVID-19 vaccines wane in recent weeks, holding back the push to lower virus transmission. To reach people who may be hesitant or have difficulty getting a shot, the counties’ health departments have scaled back mass vaccination efforts in favor of mobile clinics and pop-up sites, as well as sending vaccines to local doctor’s offices and health care groups.

In Mendocino County, 54% of residents age 16 and up have received at least one shot inoculating against the coronavirus, compared to 63% for the entire state. In Lake County, that number is 52%. And in Sonoma County, 70% of eligible residents are at least partially inoculated, while 55% are fully vaccinated.

You can reach Staff Writer Ethan Varian at ethan.varian@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5412. On Twitter @ethanvarian.