California Now Has Substantial Transmission Of COVID, But What Do The Numbers Tell Us
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — California is now the only state where community transmission of COVID-19 is substantial.
But what do the numbers in our region really tell us? When it comes to vaccination rates in our part of the state, Yolo, Solano, Sacramento and Placer counties have vaccination rates over 60%.
In comparison to the Bay Area, some counties there have just under 80% fully vaccinated and other parts have about 85% of its eligible population fully vaccinated.
Dr. Jeffrey Klausner is a professor of Population and Public Health Sciences at USC.
"We've seen definitely a very strong relationship between the proportion of the population that's vaccinated and the frequency of new infections, hospitalizations and deaths. We see that nationally, we see that in California," Dr. Klausner said.
But when it comes to case rates, the Sacramento region isn't doing that well. The latest numbers from the state show Sacramento County at 32.8 cases per 100,000 residents. Yolo shows 21.8 and Solano shows 17.7.
Bela Matyas is the Solano County Health Officer.
"It comes down to vaccination rates are different so when people socialize you see a different level of transmission in counties with good vaccination rates than in counties with less good vaccination rates," he said.
Dr. Aimee Sisson, the Yolo County public health officer, says although work continues to be done to increase vaccinations—and the numbers are slowly improving—case rates really aren't that great.
"Our case rate in Yolo County and the greater Sacramento region is still high so I don't think we should be patting ourselves on the back, we are doing better than the rest of the country but we are all doing really badly right now," she said.
Health officials do anticipate seeing another surge in a few months with the holidays just around the corner.