11th Coronavirus Death In Marin County, 203 Cases

MARIN COUNTY, CA — Officals with Marin County are reporting than an 11th person has died due to the coronavirus, marking the first death in the county for several weeks. 203 cases of the virus were also confirmed Thursday, 3 more than had been reported the day before.

The last patient to die due to the coronavirus passed away on April 8. All 11 Marin County patients who have died due to the coronavirus have been 65 years old or older. Experts say age is a major risk factor for the virus, and one of the reasons they've remained so concerned about outbreaks in assisted living homes or nursing facilities.

As of the last update Thursday, 5 residents remain in the hospital and 143 of the 203 total coronavirus patients have fully recovered from the disease.

Public health officials say the reason Marin County has seen such slow growth is because community members have been diligent in following social distancing and safely sheltering in place, effectively slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

"Our local [shelter-in-place] order, and your work as a community is the reason we've flattened the curve," said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County Public Health Officer "The latest estimates publicized yesterday suggest the timing of our action together to shelter-in-place in the bay area, as the earliest action like that nationally, saved between 30 and 40,000 lives among the 17 million or so living in the bay area."

In Marin County 2,914 people have been tested for the coronavirus, meaning just under 7 percent of tests come back positive. That's significantly lower than hot-spot states like New Jersey, where more than 45 percent of cases came back positive on Wednesday.

However even though the curve has been flattened, health leaders say it still will be some time before the shelter-in-place order is lifted. "Some may see this as mission accomplished, but the reality is this is just the first stage of a much larger and longer mission,' said Dr. Willis. "Our biggest challenges are ahead of us as we try to balance the needs for opening our economy while preventing surges in disease, knowing that the virus is part of our environment and so many of us remain susceptible."

Thursday the governor issued a modified version of the statewide shelter-in-place order, which has no set end date. Local leaders say the statewide order is actually less strict than the one currently in place for Marin County, but that the statewide order will set the pace for when local businesses can reopen.

The governor has set six rough guidelines the state will be watching to see when the shelter-in-place order could be lifted. They say in order to lift the order, California will need the ability to:

• Monitor and protect communities through extensive testing and contact tracing
• Prevent infections in high-risk communities
• Bolster the hospital and health system to withstand surges of infections
• Develop therapeutics to meet the demand for medical supplies
• Keep social distancing up in schools, businesses and child care facilities
• Determine when to re-institute a stay-at-home order if it becomes necessary again.

Statewide California has seen 37,286 cases of the coronavirus and 1,407 deaths.

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