Sonoma County reports 3 new COVID-19 deaths as hospital cases climb

Sonoma County on Monday reported three recent COVID-19 deaths, the latest fallout, health officials said, from an ongoing summer surge of virus cases and soaring hospitalizations involving severely ill patients.

As of Sunday, there were 70 people with COVID-19 in local hospitals, including 17 shown in intensive care. Only during the winter’s deadly wave of cases were more local residents hospitalized with COVID-19 on any given day.

“We are unfortunately seeing more hospitalizations due to COVID now than at any time last summer, largely because of the highly contagious delta variant,” said Dr. Sundari Mase, Sonoma County’s health officer. Those who have not received the vaccine continue to be the most vulnerable, she noted.

All three people who died were unvaccinated and had underlying health issues, according to health officials. They include a woman who was between 50 and 64 and died July 28; a woman over 75 who died July 31; and a man 50 to 64 who died Aug. 1.

They were all being treated at local hospitals when they died, officials said.

“These are preventable tragedies,” Mase said. “In almost every case, the hospitalized individual is unvaccinated.”

Last summer, the daily number of COVID-19 admissions in local hospitals peaked at 51 on July 29. The daily census of coronavirus patients remained high until mid-September and dropped to just above 20 through the fall.

By November, COVID-19 hospitalizations once again began a steep climb, peaking at 102 admissions on Jan. 4. Public health officials and infectious disease experts have repeatedly warned that deaths lag hospitalization rates by several weeks.

It remains to be seen whether today’s hospitalizations will result in the kinds of mortality rates seen last summer or during early winter, when no one was vaccinated.

Mase and other public health experts believe that high vaccination rates should temper the pandemic’s mortality rate this summer. Currently, 71% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated in Sonoma County.

“Until more people are vaccinated, I fear that we will continue to see this surge in hospitalizations,” Mase said.

Steven Buck, a spokesman for Providence St. Joseph Health, which runs Santa Rosa Memorial, Petaluma Valley and Healdsburg hospitals, said almost all patients hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. What’s more, he said medical staff are seeing “higher acuity” — more severe illness — today than last winter.

The latest transmission rate in Sonoma County is 20.2 new daily cases per 100,000 residents, about 10 times what it was in early July.

That change is driven largely by new cases among unvaccinated residents.The transmission rate for unvaccinated residents is 46 new daily cases per 100,000, compared to 10 cases per 100,000 for those who are vaccinated.

The overall testing positivity, the share of tests that result positive, is now 8.4%.

The three deaths reported Monday bring the county’s total pandemic death toll to 337.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.