Vaxxed Marin Weathers Delta Surge: Health Officer

MARIN COUNTY, CA — At a time when parts of the county are experiencing some of the pandemic’s darkest days, Marin, by comparison, is humming along just fine.

America’s most vaccinated county hasn’t been impervious to the delta variant-fueled fourth coronavirus wave to be sure, with new Marin cases surging largely in concert with most of the nation.

But whereas regions with low vaccination rates such as the South and Midwest have seen their health care systems overwhelmed in recent weeks, the Marin uptick hasn’t had the same impact.

And that’s no coincidence according to Marin’s top health official.

“What’s important about this surge and differs from previous surges is it has not corresponded with the same threat in terms of severe illness and death, largely because of the vaccine,” Marin Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis said Tuesday during a presentation before the county's Board of Supervisors.

“Our local hospitalization rates are stable, mainly due to the protection of the vaccine.”

Marin is averaging 45 new cases per day, a rate comparable to what it experienced during the winter surge in early February, Willis said.

“At that time, we had almost three times the number of people in the hospital and that difference is really attributed to the benefit of vaccines in terms of preventing severe illness and death,” Willis said.

As of Wednesday, 94.3 percent of county's eligible population 12 years of age and older had received at least one does of the vaccine and 87.1 percent completed their vaccine series according to Marin's vaccine dashboard.

“While 94 percent of our eligible residents have been vaccinated, an increasingly small fraction of our communities still make up the vast majority of our cases, in fact, the case rate of people who are unvaccinated had about a four times higher rate” of infection, Willis said.

Marin is administering around 300 vaccines per day, with a small increase attributed to concern about the delta variant and messaging that’s targeted historically unvaccinated groups, Willis said.

In the past month, Marin has made significant progress bringing vaccines to African American residents that’s brought its vaccine rate to about 80 percent.

“That’s due to a concerted strategy and strong community leadership in the African American community, especially in Marin City and in parts of Novato,” Willis said.