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Supervisor Candace Andersen, Chair
Supervisor Karen Mitchoff, Vice Chair |
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1. | Introductions | ||||||||||
Chair Andersen called the meeting to order at 1:35 p.m., introduced the Deputy County Health Officer, and explained the format of the meeting. | |||||||||||
2. | Public comment on any item under the jurisdiction of the Committee and not on this agenda (speakers may be limited to two minutes). | ||||||||||
All public comment was taken under Agenda Item #3. | |||||||||||
3. | RECEIVE status report on the County's COVID-19 status, the County's vaccination allocation framework, and school re-openings. | ||||||||||
Dr. Warne introduced himself and described his roles as a Deputy Health Officer serving in Contra Costa County’s Health Services and as a primary care doctor working in the West County Health Center. According to the data dashboard (www.cchealth.org/coronavirus), COVID case rates are declining from the peak in January. On March 14 Contra Costa County moved from the purple tier to the red tier in the State’s restriction framework. Also, the State relaxed some requirements to move into less restrictive tiers after reaching a milestone in vaccinations administered. Red tier status allows:
The County must wait at least 3 weeks before moving into the orange tier and must meet orange tier criteria for two weeks (adjusted daily case rate <4, test positivity rate <5%, equity metric rate <5.2%). Early April is the earliest the County could move into the orange tier. County case rate is 7, adjusted by the State to 5.9, substantially lower than the peak rate of 62 in January. Test positivity rate is 2.2%, much better than the peak positivity rate of 11.1% at the end of December. The equity metric is 4.0%, measuring the test positivity rate in the lowest 25% of Census tracts in the Healthy Places Index and correlating to those areas with the highest rates of COVID. Total cases in the County are 64,358, rate is flattening. The county is diagnosing 80-120 new cases per day, significantly lower than 1,000 per day in early January. Though there continues to be disparity in case rates by location throughout the county, the rate is going down across all communities. Most impacted communities are San Pablo, Pacheco and Bay Point (>200 cases per 100,000), followed by Oakley, Pittsburg, Richmond, Antioch and Discovery Bay (>150 cases per 100,000), then Concord, El Sobrante, Pinole, Martinez and Bethel Island (>100 cases per 100,000). The County performs 4,000-8,000 tests daily, with over 1.2 million tests performed in total. There have been 727 deaths to date, with significantly fewer deaths recorded in February and March. 42 COVID patients currently in Contra Costa hospitals, 7-day average of 46 patients is significantly lower than over 300 in early January. 20% ICU bed availability rate; 10% of ICU patients have COVID. Outbreaks in congregate living facilities decreased dramatically, 13 facilities being monitored for outbreak activity down from 55 facilities in January. Vaccinations have been delivered to all facilities. Dr. Warne said that although the three available vaccines (Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson) may have different efficacy rates from their research trials, they are all highly effective in the real world. Vaccination adds to existing layers of protection (masking, social distancing, avoiding large gatherings). Approximately 484,000 first doses have been administered to approximately 34% of eligible residents 16 and older (318,000 first doses), and approximately 18% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated (170,000 second doses). 8,000 – 12,000 vaccines are administered per day, 7-day average of 8,800 vaccinations. The County is focusing on improving vaccination rates for Latino and African American populations. 94% of individuals aged 75 and older and 76% of individuals aged 65-74 have received at least one dose of the vaccine. There is capacity to administer more than 70,000 doses per week, and the amount of doses delivered is increasing - 13,000 additional doses from the Federal government this week. The County has cleared its backlog of eligible vaccine appointment requests. He reviewed new guidance for fully vaccinated people (which is 2 weeks after receiving the final dose of vaccine), such as gathering in small groups indoors and no quarantine following asymptomatic exposure to COVID. A complete list of guidance for fully vaccinated individuals is on the county COVID webpage. We are in Phase 1B of vaccination eligibility: individuals age 60 and over or with higher-risk health conditions, in congregate living facilities (group homes, shelters, jails, etc), transportation / logistics workers, education / childcare workers, agriculture / food workers, and emergency services workers. The County COVID webpage outlines how to schedule appointments through health care providers, Contra Costa County, the State (www.myturn.ca.gov) or private sector organizations such as CVS. Three main variant mutation strains of COVID are being followed. UK variant is more transmissible and results in a more severe illness but is susceptible to the vaccine. 4700 cases of UK variant in the United States, 343 cases in California and 2 cases in the County last week. South Africa/ Brazil variant is not more transmissible, but it is not yet known if the vaccine is as effective on this variant. B-427/B-429 variant, or California/West Coast variant, has recently been classified as a variant of concern by CDC and is considered more transmissible. 169 cases of West Coast variant have been identified in the County. The County is participating in full-genome sequencing to track variants. Dr. Warne responded to questions that were received in advance of the meeting:
The following individuals spoke during the Public Comment period:
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4. | RECEIVE and APPROVE the Record of Action for the February 18, 2021 meeting. | ||||||||||
The Committee approved the Record of Action for the February 18, 2021 meeting as presented. | |||||||||||
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5. | The next meeting is currently scheduled for April 15, 2021. | ||||||||||
Chair Andersen confirmed the next meeting date as noticed. | |||||||||||
6. | Adjourn | ||||||||||
Chair Andersen adjourned the meeting at 2:50 p.m. | |||||||||||
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