Santa Clara County Reports 185 New Coronavirus Cases, No Deaths

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — The Santa Clara County Public Health Department reported 185 additional coronavirus cases Thursday.

The latest report brings the countywide case count to 27,299.

The county reported no additional coronavirus-related fatalities Thursday, leaving its COVID-19 death toll at 440.

There were 102 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Santa Clara County as of Thursday, of which 26 were being treated in intensive care units.

Elsewhere in the Bay Area and beyond, the San Francisco Unified School District will partner with the city of San Francisco to bolster the district's school facility assessment staff before some in-person classes resume in January, the district said Thursday.

While the district has inspected 20 of its schools in advance of students returning, an additional 65 must still be assessed before the district will allow its youngest students and other vulnerable groups to return to in-person classes during the coronavirus pandemic.

Through the district's agreement with the city, 20 city employees from San Francisco's COVID-19 Command Center will be deployed to help the district inspect the remaining school campuses to ensure their ready for students to return.

The district's youngest students and some elementary school students in special education programs are currently expected to return to the classroom on Jan. 25, according to Matthews.

Public health officials in Alameda County on Thursday decided to temporarily pause further openings to the economy following an increase in the county's COVID-19 case rate and the rise in Bay Area and statewide cases.

Alameda County's new daily cases per 100,000 people has jumped from a low of 3.4 to 4.9. County public health officials expect to move the county to a more restrictive tier soon in the state's Blueprint for a Safer Economy.

"We must exercise caution and prepare to move quickly to protect our residents and hospitals from rising cases of COVID-19," Dr. Nicholas Moss, the county's health officer, said in a statement.

"We continue to closely monitor the situation," he said. "If necessary, we will restrict activities that are higher risk for spreading COVID, including those in which people gather indoors without masks."

The caution comes as county officials have seen day-over-day increases in the number of new reported cases of the coronavirus in Alameda County as well as increases in hospitalizations.

Contra Costa and Santa Cruz counties on Tuesday moved to a more restrictive tier.

Statewide, a rolling average of new cases has risen and so has the number of hospitalizations.

Solano County is once again on the brink of moving back into the state's most restrictive coronavirus pandemic reopening tier due to a rate of new cases that is nearly double what is needed to remain in a lower tier, the county's public health officer said this week.

The county needs to report fewer than seven new cases per 100,000 residents per day to stay out of the most-restrictive tier, which works out to about 31 cases per day, according to Solano County Public Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas.

Solano County averaged more than 50 new cases per day over the last week, Matyas told the county's Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, including a stretch of four to five days with more than 80 cases per day.

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There have been 1,000,631 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 18,126 coronavirus-related deaths in California as of Thursday afternoon according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The United States had 10,523,260 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 242,577 coronavirus-related fatalities as of Thursday afternoon.

There have been 52,558,560 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,290,840 deaths reported globally as of Thursday afternoon.

— Bay City News contributed to this report