Active Cases Break 100, Focus On At-Risk Testing to Ramp-Up

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With 10 new coronavirus cases reported on Tuesday, the total number of active cases broke 100 for the first time in Sonoma County. The totals now stand at 103 active, 87 recovered, and 2 deaths.

This comes as county health officer Dr. Sundari Mase announced the county was planning to ramp up testing of at-risk populations, including health care workers and those who live and work in congregate settings, like senior group care homes.

According to the health officer, the increased testing of around 200 people per day will begin this weekend at drive-thru sites. This was made possible, she said, due to the arrival of a new supply of thousands of testing swabs which were in short supply for weeks and hindered the ability to conduct local testing. The county has up to 100 thousand more swabs on order.

In recent days Mase has said that very few infections were being traced to community spread, and that the rise in detected cases in the county was due to more aggressive tracing and testing of those who have been exposed to the virus by others.

The ramped-up testing says Mase will be needed as the county begins a gradual lifting of shelter-in-place restrictions, which may include a gradual reopening of parks and some commercial sectors, like residential construction and real estate.

Also, since hospitalizations due to the coronavirus have been even lower than the most optimistic models predicted, Mase said the restrictions on elective surgeries may also be lifted. Sonoma County currently has around 20 patients hospitalized due to the coronavirus, far fewer than the 1000 or more that most models were predicting at the height of the crisis.

Mase says this is due to a greater than expected success of strict shelter-in-place in controlling the spread of the virus in Sonoma County.