Mendocino County’s grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic continues with daily new case numbers proving correct predictions of a surge and the announcement of the county’s latest death last night, December 7.
According to Mendocino County’s Deputy Chief Executive Office Sarah Dukett, the individual who passed away due to COVID-19 was a 53-year-old man from the “South County” region. That region is defined by Mendocino County Public Health as the areas of Comptche, Philo, Boonville, Yorkville, and Hopland. Dukett said the man passed away at home with hospice.
It should be noted that the age of this individual is younger than the average COVID-19 death. According to a study by Joshua R. Goldstein and Ronald D. Lee titled “Demographic Perspectives on the Mortality of COVID-19 and other epidemics, “About 70% of all US COVID-19 deaths are to age 70 years or above.”
The daily new case numbers continue an upward trajectory throughout this last week. As of this evening’s Mendocino County COVID-19 dashboard, the county is currently experiencing 22 daily positive cases and 4.54% of tests are positive. Comparing these numbers with two weeks ago, on November 23 the daily positive cases was 9.71 and the percentage of positive tests was 3.97%
President of local Adventist Health Hospitals Jason Wells told the Board of Supervisors today that the local hospitals currently have 100 bed are prepared to surge to 175 if necessary. Of those 100, Wells said currently 72 are filled though 80-85 would typically be filled during this time of the year. Wells said that Adventist Health Hospitals have 16 ICU beds and with current staff resources could surged to 45.
