Latest Santa Cruz County COVID-19 Update: Case Rates; Mask Order; COVID In Kids

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CA — Santa Cruz County Health Officer Gail Newel said she's "feeling very hopeful" about progress in the local battle against the delta variant of the coronavirus.

Health care facilities in other areas of the state and nation, such as California's Central Valley, continued to be inundated with COVID-19 patients. But Santa Cruz County hospitals were seeing a decline in COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths — and none of the cases have been among vaccinated people, Newel said at a Thursday news conference.

The daily case rate here has nearly halved over the past two weeks, down from about 60 cases per day to a daily case rate in the mid-30s.

Vaccinations have slowed here to a rate of about 170 new doses per day, though the county is nearing its goal of vaccinating 70 percent of its population, said county Emergency Medical Services Director David Ghilarducci. About 69 percent of the population had received at least one dose of a vaccine as of Thursday.

"Vaccination is our only path out of this pandemic," he said.

Wondering when you'll be allowed to take your mask off at the grocery store or in other indoor public spaces?

Santa Cruz County continued to see high COVID-19 transmission rates, as does 93 percent of the country, Newel said. The mask order will be rescinded when the county moves out of the next-lowest tier of substantial COVID-19 transmission and into the moderate tier as designated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Until then, the county's enforcement team will continue to field complaints from the public and ensure businesses follow the order, Newel said.

The highly transmissible delta variant has changed the game in Santa Cruz County and beyond.

The county continued to see the coronavirus spread most commonly via community transmission, which means the county is unable to perform contact tracing, and a patient doesn't know how she got sick. Spread among close contacts, such as family members and roommates, was previously the most common way to contract COVID-19.

Santa Cruz County — like the state and nation — continued to see an uptick of COVID-19 cases in people 19 and younger, particularly people in the 5-to-17 age range, Newel said. This probably reflected cases associated with back-to-school and extracurricular activities, where COVID-19 spread has been most prominent.

Newel said residents can soon expect COVID-19 safety guidelines for youth, including mask recommendations for athletes and audience members and for activities such as music classes or clubs.

Santa Cruz County public health officials continue to encourage residents to get vaccinated. Young adults in the 20-to-29 age range are less likely to have received a vaccine, Ghilarducci said.

Why get vaccinated if some people have, in rare cases, gotten infected by the delta variant? Vaccinated people are 10 times less likely to get infected and 95 to 95 percent less likely to end up in the hospital or die, he said.

Vaccination is particularly important since viruses may adapt and mutate, Ghilarducci said.

If the community and world were vaccinated, viruses would have "less opportunities to find a chink in our armor."

Find out where to get a COVID-19 vaccine in Santa Cruz County.