Sonoma County reports first COVID-19 death in a month

A Sonoma County man who was fully vaccinated against the coronavirus died of complications from COVID-19 last week, marking the first county resident who was inoculated to die from the disease, county officials said.

The county reported the death, the first since April, late Monday, bringing the local coronavirus death toll to 315.

It involved a man over the age of 64 who was fully vaccinated when he died at a hospital on Thursday, county officials said. Though the coronavirus was a contributing factor, he also had other significant medical conditions that led to his death, officials said. He was not showing symptoms of COVID-19 when he was vaccinated, according to Daniel Virkstis, a county spokesperson.

The fatality was the first such death of a Sonoma County resident since late April, when a man and a woman, both over the age of 64, died on April 22 and April 23, respectively.

Those deaths were the first that county officials reported in three weeks related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Virus-related deaths in the county have declined dramatically since a winter surge of coronavirus cases, when 53, 68 and 26 fatalities were reported in the span of three months beginning in December.

Pandemic-related deaths fell to six people in March, a decline county health officials have previously credited to the ongoing push for vaccinations.

You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @nashellytweets.