144 Positives, New One Day Record. County to Ramp Up Testing.

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As Sonoma County battles a June through August surge in coronavirus cases, the county health lab reported a new record one day tally of positive tests.

NEW CASES

144 new cases were reported on Thursday, topping the previous record of 125 set less than a week ago on August 8th. Active cases in Sonoma County stood at 2023, and recovered cases at just under 2000. The death toll countwide remained 51.

HOSPITALIZATIONS

According to the state, hospitalizations in the county have remained relatively stable, with 46 comfirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients currently being treated. The two week average is 40. The number of patients in ICUs stood at 11, very near the two week average of 12.

CASE RATES

For perspective, Sonoma County is roughly in the middle of the list of California counties in terms of case rates in the past week. The highest rates are currently in the Central Valley where coronavirus cases have been rising rapidly.

Sonoma County has had 705 cases reported in the past 7 days, with a case rate per 100 thousand of 143. Overall, California’s case rate in the same 7 day period is 157 per 100 thousand.

Scroll down to find Sonoma County, and other Bay Area counties highlighted in yellow.

NEW TESTING CAPACITY

Meanwhile, Sonoma County health officials said on Thursday that they’ve received the first shipment of new equipment that will allow workers to ramp up testing at the county lab. They hope to be able to process between 900 and 1200 daily tests by sometime in September, roughly tripling current testing.

When that additional testing capacity arrives, hopes are it will reduce wait times for results which are currently running 4-10 days due to backups at the state’s commercial labs. Those wait times have hindered the ability of county health officials to complete timely contact tracing and isolation of those who may have been exposed.

Much of the local testing has been taking place at the two state funded sites in Santa Rosa and Petaluma which perform about 500-600 tests a day. With those slated to close in September the Sonoma County Health Department lab will be taking up the slack, with staffing ramping up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The new equipment employs robotic technology, and can process tests more quickly and efficiently with less human imput. Still, the county health lab expects to hire at least 4 additional clinical lab scientists to supervise work and allow the lab to run 24/7. The first of those workers will not begin until early September.