Sonoma County nears 10,000th case of COVID-19

A joyful tenor who sang in choirs across Sonoma County, Julio Rosales, 65, died after a brief illness from COVID-19 on Aug. 6, a day when the county reported just over 3,400 Sonoma County residents had been diagnosed with the disease since March.

Before Rosales’ death at Sonoma Valley Hospital, where he was taken after falling ill at Sonoma Post-Acute, his family experienced the forced separation endured by thousands. The skilled nursing home where he had lived since a stroke left him unable to walk barred visitors to protect its residents. Over video conference, his sister and four brothers would sing “If I Fell” and other Beatles songs to show Rosales he was loved.

“Every day I hoped that he was OK, but not being able to have contact with him was very very difficult,” said his sister, Ligia Matthews of Sonoma.

The coronavirus pandemic would hit its first peak in the county not two weeks after Rosales’ death, reporting 197 new cases on a single day. The virus has since fallen into a stubborn pattern of infection that has stalled business reopenings and continues to deal an unjust blow to impoverished Latino communities and people, like Rosales, living in care homes for seniors.

The county will soon cross a somber milestone when 10,000 residents will have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, about eight months after the first case was detected here. As of Friday night, that number was 9,646.

A virus itself is indiscriminate, but the spread of COVID-19 has been propelled by the realities and injustices of our society: Who must chose between keeping a job and staying home? Who lives in a crowded household with family and roommates? Who among us feels that even while sick they have no choice but to work?

The pandemic has changed the lives of our youngest neighbors in ways that are also indelibly unfair: Which children are trying to do school remotely while taking care of younger siblings? What students must try to learn while their families are struggling with the threat of eviction and wage loss?

In Sonoma County, 72% of all people known to have COVID-19 are Latino though they only represent about 27% of the population. That disparity — consistent for months — has forced a painful reckoning for county leaders about biases entrenched in society and local policies.

One Santa Rosa ZIP code — 95407 — has come to represent generations of inequities that have made the Roseland district, a working class neighborhood with many immigrant and Latino residents, an epicenter for the virus.

Alegría De La Cruz, the county’s first equity officer, a position established in July and borne out of a period of public unrest over racial injustice, said this has spotlighted those facing the greatest consequences to their health and financial welfare caused by the pandemic. It is grist for the mission to help people survive this time so that public life and commerce can resume, she said.

“We’re tethered together in ways people haven’t felt before,” said De La Cruz. “When we have pockets of people who are suffering, our community as a whole suffers.”

The United States surpassed 9 million cases of COVID-19 last week — hitting a peak Friday of more than 100,000 new cases in a single day since the disease was first detected in Washington State in January. Several recent days have seen the country tally more than 1,000 deaths.

Across the country, COVID-19 patients are being sent to field hospitals in states like Wisconsin amid a surge of people with the illness needing care.

Friday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced the city will delay reopening more business activities, such as indoor gym locker rooms and pools, because of an uptick in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

The economic toll has been a profound disruption to lives and livelihoods, forcing roughly 44% of businesses to close in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to an analysis of the pandemic’s impact on the economy by Opportunity Insights, a research and policy institute based at Harvard University.

Low-wage workers in the county are experiencing a 31% decrease in employment compared to January, according to the data.

“Never did I think we would be in this deep dark hole this long,” said Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin, the board’s chair.

Supervisors this month voted to spend $16 million on a long-term public health campaign against the virus, vowing to lessen the impact on Latino residents and others disproportionately affected.

Election Day on Tuesday comes at a critical time for battling the virus as the days grow shorter and colder, making it more difficult for public life to take place outdoors, where people are less likely to spread the virus to others.

Knocking on doors in Phoenix on Friday far from his home district, Healdsburg Democrat State Sen. Mike McGuire said another term from President Donald Trump would be disastrous for the economy and the country’s effort to stem the spread of the virus.

McGuire said local communities like Sonoma County need a strong federal strategy to spearhead increased production of testing supplies, infuse economic relief into local communities and establish a national plan akin to those in other countries like Australia and Taiwan that have dramatically decreased the virus’s hold.

“The president vilifies doctors and science,” McGuire said during a break in his canvassing. “He’s the absolutely worst person to have at the helm during the worst crisis in a century.”

Though Sonoma County has “widespread community spread,” rates for local infections have not gone up yet have held steady, according to Health Officer Sundari Mase. Two metrics show this: the case rate per 100,000 residents has hovered between 10 to 12 cases and the percentages of all tests that are positive has held at 5% since early September.

Mase said people must continue following the advice: wear a mask, keep physical distance and limit interactions outside the home, among other guidance.

“We as a community just need to do the right thing, each individual, for ourselves, for our families,” Mase said.

But the ability to stay home and limit contacts can be an impossible task for the essential workers that are the backbone of the economy.

The virus first took hold among agricultural workers and, as businesses reopened, has infected people working in services and sales.

Since early September, 34 restaurant workers and 19 delivery drivers have contracted the virus through their jobs, according to county data.

About half of the 566 local health care workers who have tested positive for COVID-19 contracted the virus at work, a county report said. That figure includes skilled nursing home employees.

For about 41% of all cases of COVID-19 in Sonoma County, the virus was acquired at home.

Mase said the county is trying to provide more hotel rooms where people can stay when they may risk spreading the virus to others in their homes.

Earlier this spring, community physician Dr. Panna Lossy saw how public health expectations that people quarantine if they might be infectious were impractical for many people living in multigenerational or roommate settings.

With public health outreach starting with a positive test, the person in all likelihood is out of the most infectious phase and the chance to stop its spread has been lost, she said.

Lossy launched a nonprofit, IsoCare, to help people quarantine in safe settings and make up for lost wages. Since May, they have helped 2,500 people.

Employers must do better, Lossy said. She described the situation of two clients given rooms and financial help by her nonprofit, both nursing home workers who lived with a third coworker who had tested positive for COVID-19.

“The nursing home knew,” Lossy said. “The other two were told they didn’t have symptoms and should come to work or use vacation time. Really?”

She recently had an Internet service technician show up at her house wearing an ineffective neck gaiter. The tech told her he had to buy it himself. She gave him a week’s worth of masks.

“We have to ask more from employers,“ Lossy said.

The county’s hospitals have never had to pivot to crisis standards of care like those in New York City in the spring when the city’s hospitals were overwhelmed by the number of very sick people needing acute care.

Although many people recover after contracting COVID-19, there are few treatments for those who become very sick and no vaccine.

Dr. Chad Krilich, chief medical officer for Providence St. Joseph Health, operator of Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, said that across his company’s entire hospital system, the mortality rate for COVID-19 patients decreased by 4% between their first case in March through May, the latest data available.

“We now have a lot more tools in our tool kit to be able to provide exceptional care to our patients,” Krilich said.

His hospital experienced an outbreak of the virus that began in August, infecting 26 employees and fewer than five patients.

Krilich said he is concerned for the great exhaustion in the community for this sustained pandemic and the changes forced on all. The more institutions, companies and families can do to set themselves up to stay healthy, the better. For the hospital, that means taking steps like removing some chairs from break rooms and installing plexiglass so that it is easier for staff to keep a distance.

“What we know is that COVID fatigue is real and we need to continue to be vigilant about the things we know decrease the virus from spreading,” Krilich said.

He and other health experts say communities must continue adapting to these inconvenient and challenging rules or it will take longer to return to normal life.

For Rosales’ sister Matthews, she knew she must adapt months before her brother got sick and died.

When Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered Californians to stay home to avoid spreading COVID-19 in March, Matthews of Sonoma realized she had to teach her son, who has autism, to wear a mask.

Starting with just a few seconds at a time, they practiced each day to help her son Mitchell Matthews, who is 21 and does not speak, acclimate to the feeling of having a mask on his face. It was a formidable adjustment, but he persevered with his mother’s help.

Today, he wears a mask with ease anytime they leave the house. If he can do it, Matthews believes, anyone can and should.

“I know how important it is,” Matthews said. “We have to adapt. I wish more people would.”

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.