Santa Clara County Reports 499 New Coronavirus Cases, 4 Deaths

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — The Santa Clara County Public Health Department reported 499 additional coronavirus cases Wednesday.

The latest report brings the countywide case count to 35,945.

The county reported four additional coronavirus-related fatalities Wednesday, bringing its COVID-19 death toll to 486.

There were 287 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Santa Clara County as of Wednesday, of which 83 were being treated in intensive care units.

Elsewhere around the Bay Area and beyond, Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to order economic shutdowns and enhanced shelter-in-place restrictions amid a statewide surge of COVID-19 cases, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Newsom on Monday said additional restrictions could be “dramatic” as the pandemic spins out of control throughout the nation and in California.

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UCSF infectious disease expert, said of the explosion of coronavirus cases in the Bay Area in recent weeks: “It’s like the surge that never ends.”

Vaccines may be coming to Santa Clara County in the next few weeks and county leaders say they have a plan in place for when it arrives. But the county's responsibility is solely distribution and storage logistics -- who gets the first batch of vaccines is set by the federal government, with additional state guidelines.

Since the initial amount will be limited, vaccines will be prioritized for health care workers, who are most at risk of contracting COVID-19.

After that, the priority will be for other frontline workers and communities who have disproportionately been impacted by the pandemic, Dr. Jennifer Tong, associate chief medical officer for Santa Clara Valley Medical Center said Tuesday.

"It will take months before everyone who wants a vaccine is able to get it," Tong said.

The county submitted a detailed plan to the state on Monday outlining vaccine management, community engagement and distribution of COVID-19 and will soon be made public.

What is now confirmed is that the county will receive some doses directly from vaccine manufacturers at county-operated hospitals and some healthcare providers like Kaiser will receive vaccines from manufactures at the direction of the state.

However, is also still too early to tell how many vaccines the county will get for the first batch.

As COVID-19 cases surge in San Mateo County, hospital capacity remains high and the death rate low, but officials are concerned about the coming weeks and urge people to take necessary precautions.

The county's case rate shot up by 85 percent from October to November, according to data from San Mateo County Health.

Data shows that the number of new cases in a day reached an all-time high of 168 cases on Nov. 16.

There have been 14,812 cases in total and 170 deaths.

State data shows that the county's unadjusted case rate per 100,000 is 16.3 new cases per day (8.2 adjusted) compared to 4.1 new cases per day (2.2 adjusted) at the end of October.

The test positivity rate remains low at 2.6 percent.

As a result, the county moved to the most restrictive tier (purple tier) of the state's reopening system on Saturday, which prohibits many indoor activities and imposes a curfew on non-essential activities from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

During a media briefing on Wednesday, County Manager Mike Callagy said that the rise could be due to increased gatherings, and urged people to follow precautions.

"The message that we're sending to everyone right now is that this is the time to be extremely careful, to really be vigilant and to make sure that you comply with all the regulations," Callagy said.

Don't miss updates about the coronavirus in California as they are announced. Sign up for Patch news alerts and newsletters

There have been 1,265,182 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 19,410 coronavirus-related deaths in California as of Wednesday night according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The United States had 13,916,543 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 273,316 coronavirus-related fatalities as of Wednesday night.

There have been 64,447,657 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,491,559 deaths reported globally as of Wednesday night.

— Bay City News contributed to this report