Sonoma County reports six more virus-related deaths, bringing total to 120

Sonoma County health officials on Tuesday reported six more residents have died from complications of the coronavirus, increasing the pandemic death toll to 120.

The six fatalities include five senior care home residents and are the first area deaths reported in a week. The additional deaths are a sober reminder the highly contagious infectious disease remains a serious threat, despite the recent decline in virus-related hospitalizations and new cases even at local nursing homes where COVID-19 outbreaks were rampant through the summer.

“Our hearts go out to the families that continue to face this terrible outcome,“ county Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase said.

Of the 120 victims of the virus, at least 95 have been vulnerable elderly residents of skilled nursing centers and residential care homes. With COVID-19 transmission recently subsiding at senior care sites, local health officials hope that leads to fewer deaths among the elderly.

Senior care home patients comprise nearly 1 in 7 county residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic started in mid-March, according to county public health data. As of Sept. 17, some 953 seniors had been diagnosed with the coronavirus over six months.

From Sept. 3 to Sept. 17, however, only 47 new infections among nursing home residents were identified, said Jenny Mercado, a county public health epidemiologist. And during the week of Sept. 10 to 17, she said there were only 14 cases — eight residents and six staff members.

During the summer, there were weeks when senior care facilities reported from 75 to more than 100 new cases.

“We’ve had a lot less actual cases recorded last week,“ Mase said. ”I’m hopeful that with the number of cases going down, we’ll soon be able to minimize the mortality.“

Among the latest six fatalities attributed to the virus, four were woman and two were men. Three of the woman were over 64 and skilled nursing home residents who died between Sept. 13 and Sept. 18. The other woman over 64 lived in a residential care home and died Aug. 12. Local health officials were uncertain why her death wasn’t reported sooner.

Of the two men, one was a skilled nursing center resident between age 50 and 64 who died Sept. 18 and the other man was over 64 and died Sept. 19 at a local hospital. He was not a senior care home resident.

Meanwhile, Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital officials said Tuesday their contact tracing investigation prompted by an August COVID-19 outbreak of 26 health care workers and fewer than five patients has been completed.

The outbreak, in the hospital’s medical surgical area, has led to tension between some hospital workers and senior managers. All hospital workers thought to have had a “high risk of exposure” have completed three rounds of virus testing and no additional COVID-19 infections have been found, said Christian Hill, a spokesman for Sonoma County’s largest medical center.

Hill said the hospital would continue to follow local, state and federal infection prevention protocols, such as deep cleaning the medical center and screening everyone who enters.

Memorial, he said, has taken additional steps, including rearranging and removing furniture not conducive to social distancing, installing additional plexiglass partitions and requiring people wear face coverings throughout the hospital.

The hospital’s response to the recent COVID-19 outbreak has been criticized as slow and insufficient by some health care workers, including nurses and medical technicians. One key criticism has been the unwillingness by Providence St. Joseph Health, the company that runs the hospital, to conduct widespread testing among workers throughout Memorial, which employs about 2,000 people.

On Wednesday, Memorial employees represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers and the Staff Nurses Association will hold a noon rally in front of the Santa Rosa hospital to urge senior executives to provide more virus testing and stronger infection-control measures against the contagion.

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