Public health officials told the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday they’re aiming to have the county move into the less-restrictive orange tier of the state’s reopening plan by April 7.
It’s the earliest Contra Costa can reopen further, according to state guidelines, which mandate remaining three weeks at the same rate or lower of reported infections before progressing. It’s been nine days since the county progressed from the most restrictive purple tier into the red tier.
As of Monday, 734 people have died in Contra Costa from COVID-19.
County health director Anna Roth told the board vaccinations are going so well, her department has lowered the age the current age threshold to 50.
“Now that’s moving out to another 300,000 people, and we feel confident that we now have the supply coming in to be able to start vaccinating those people,” Roth said.
Vaccine distribution has ramped up dramatically enough for the county to move its goal of administering a million doses by Fourth of July to a million by Memorial Day.
Roth said the county has vaccinated 96 percent of eligible residents 75 and over and more than 80 percent of people 65 and over. Among people with priority health conditions, the county has already vaccinated nearly 100,000 people 50 to 64 years old.
She also announced a new mass vaccination site will open March 30 at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in Concord.
“We hope that this will be a drive-thru site, and we’ll be starting with a couple thousands of vaccines a day there, hoping to ramp up to get anywhere from 11,000 to 15,000 vaccinations a week,” Roth said. “That will be dependent on how much vaccine will be moving into our community.”
County health officer Dr. Chris Farnitano said the county can get to the orange tier three ways. The first is dropping the case rate in underserved communities below 2 percent for two straight weeks. It’s currently 4.2 percent.
The second can come if case rates per 100,000 residents drops below 4 per day for two weeks. It’s currently at 5.8.
The third path to orange is if the state administers 4 million vaccines among its underserved communities, which could allow the state to raise its threshold for counties to move into the orange. That number is currently 2.8 million. Then the state could move the overall threshold from 4 to 5.9 for two consecutive weeks.
Farnitano also said Contra Costa has seen two cases of the U.K. variant. The California, or West Coast, variant is now showing up in more than 50 percent of new cases statewide. Though a few cases of other “variants of concern,” like ones from South Africa and Brazil, have appeared in California, none so far have showed up in Contra Costa.
“We really are in this race of getting enough vaccine in arms to interrupt the spread, and a race between these variants spreading, and people letting their guard down too quickly,” he said.
Roth said people signing up for vaccinations through the county should receive a response with a day or two.
“We aren’t slowing down; this isn’t a time to stop,” she said. “We are still facing a lot of work ahead.”
Residents can sign up at multiple websites, including the county health site (www.cchealth.org) and the state’s MyTurn page (www.myturn.ca.gov).
Lol. AFTER Easter.
Funny how Contra Costa “health” dept does not keep records of FLU deaths for those over 65.
CONVID. You were All just following orders though, Where have we heard that before???
What about not overwhelming the hospitals? That was the entire purpose a year ago. And the second lock down. Now it’s a vaccine. Eradicate it. Thank you brown shirts. So nice of them. Hopefully by July 4th I can have people over for a BBQ according to Saint Joe.
Oh yeah. And don’t forget how herd immunity was changed to include vaccinations as well.
this business is a joke
All to get rid of the orange man… that’s how sick these globalists are
You really need to go back to school and get educated. Your comments continue to show a lack of knowledge.
Is anyone still listening to the ‘health’ department?
They are a scam.
I will be celebrating Easter with my family, in doors, and they cannot stop me. Most of my family is already vaccinated (either essential worker or age) but it would not matter to us.
When the health department can start caring about us, showing us respect, and start following actual science, maybe I will start to listen to them again …maybe.
Your posts are inconsistent, unless you’ve had an awakening.
Just finally call it what it is……….. a SCAM!
How are they inconsistent?
I believe schools should be open and the teachers who do not return should be summarily fired from their jobs.
I believe science should be followed.
I believe that many of the Covid called deaths were not CAUSED by Covid, but WITH Covid.
I do not believe that Covid is as bad as the media and our politicians have made it out to believe.
I believe our Health Department has been complacent in locking us down and is currently drunk with power – much like many other political leaders (school boards, mayors etc).
I believe Newsom has overstepped the nature of California Emergency Services Act, though he did follow the letter of it – after changing the 30 day limit that it originally stated.
I believe Newsom is a fraud and should be recalled.
I believe Trump hurt this country.
I believe Harris got her position because of the color of skin, not because of her skills.
I believe Biden is not an effective leader.
I also believe the vaccine to be truthful and I have no issues taking it. Why would I, it is science based.
I have celebrated with my family, in person, without masks, in close proximity of each other.
Yes, I think the RESPONSE to Covid is a SCAM, a power grab, a fear tactic force multiplied by the politicians, social and mainstream media. I also believe that Covid is a real virus that has caused some deaths and harms, though no where NEAR the reported numbers.
@parent Oh, Harris has “skills.” Just ask Willie Brown!
brought to you by the county board that believes racism is a public health crisis
what a joke!
“Farnitano also said Contra Costa has seen two cases of the U.K. variant. The California, or West Coast, variant is now showing up in more than 50 percent of new cases statewide. Though a few cases of other “variants of concern,” like ones from South Africa and Brazil, have appeared in California, none so far have showed up in Contra Costa.”
But it’s not the China Virus or Wuhan Virus, because that will cause white supremacists to injure Asians. Then why aren’t the white supremacists injuring Brits, South Africans, or Brazilians. The media, activists, and the politicians spouting this garbage are mentally ill.
And definitely not by changing the metrics or any funny business!
Search for a video interview with Geert Vanden Bossche. The title is “Mass Vaccination in a Pandemic – Benefits versus Risks – Interview with Geert Vanden Bossche.
He is a Belgian vaccinologist (he is PRO-vaccine and makes vaccines). He is sounding the alarm about the dangers of injecting people with these CV Vaccines.
The most alarming takeaway for me from the video was: the antibodies in this gene-therapy jab will overpower your own broad-based immune system, making it very hard in the future for you to fight off all of the things you do now, because your immune system will only be looking for a one-strain of CV that you were jabbed for. (I’m simplifying what he said but that is the gist – your immune system will be less functional after the jab.)
CV has already mutated over a 1,000 times.
There is absolutely everything to lose with taking this “vaccine” for a virus that will 99% not kill you.
Your medical fantasies are very impressive. Why did you have to go all the way to Europe to find your expert fake? Dr. Tenpenny is available right here in this country. Enjoy your fantasy!
Not true, the immune system is divided into two main branches: innate and adaptive. Basically, innate immunity doesn’t remember much. You can throw the same virus at your innate immune system and it will not remember it. It will not get any stronger fighting it each time. By comparison, the adaptive immune system has a memory built in. It remembers tiny invaders and fights them back with more vigor each time. Much like Influenza the vaccine is modified yearly as strains change, the same happens with the Covid Vaccines as Vaccines make use of the adaptive part of our immune system.
While the death rate is low, the main risk is we nor anywhere on this planet is equipped for a pandemic from a medical perspective.
Its not like the Flu and is far more contagious. Long term effects, yeah you come out ok, then find your heart is damaged, lungs are damaged, there’s a huge long term unknown still.
Oh and Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche is a veterinarian by background and trade who recently released an open letter boldly claiming that the COVID-19 vaccines will be harmful to humanity by allowing the virus to mutate in dangerous ways
– If we are worried about dangerous variants emerging, it is much more riskier to allow the virus to spread between unvaccinated people
– If coronavirus variants emerge for which the current vaccines offer little to no protection, the vaccines can be reformulated to be a better fit, much like the annual flu vaccine
– Dr. Bossche proposes the use of a new type of vaccine based on natural killer cells, which he claims he is working on but for which there is no published evidence.
It not what it’s not.
They don’t know what the vaccine will do long term. They had been working on the mRNA vaccines for some time with not much to show for it aside from a bunch of dead lab animals. Then Covid came along and they had an epiphany $$$ , eureka it works! yea don’t buy it. Truth, it’s all versions of vaccine are not technically FDA approved, we have several reports of clotting issues associated to the mRNA vaccine being reported to VAERS, and several people I know who took the Johnson and Johnson got really sick afterwards. Its a shame they are forcing experimental vaccines on people equipped with an immune system to fight it.
@It Is What It Is:
It is not!
He is way more qualified to talk about vaccines than Bill Gates and I suspect you or I. There is NO published evidence that the CV vaccines work either.
Here is his bio. Pretty darned qualified I’d say.
Geert Vanden Bossche (DVM, PhD)
Geert Vanden Bossche received his DVM from the University of Ghent, Belgium, and his PhD degree in Virology from the University of Hohenheim, Germany. He held adjunct faculty appointments at universities in Belgium and Germany. After his career in Academia, Geert joined several vaccine companies (GSK Biologicals, Novartis Vaccines, Solvay Biologicals) to serve various roles in vaccine R&D as well as in late vaccine development. Geert then moved on to join the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Discovery team in Seattle (USA) as Senior Program Officer; he then worked with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) in Geneva as Senior Ebola Program Manager. At GAVI he tracked efforts to develop an Ebola vaccine. He also represented GAVI in fora with other partners, including WHO, to review progress on the fight against Ebola and to build plans for global pandemic preparedness. Back in 2015, Geert scrutinized and questioned the safety of the Ebola vaccine that was used in ring vaccination trials conducted by WHO in Guinea. His critical scientific analysis and report on the data published by WHO in the Lancet in 2015 was sent to all international health and regulatory authorities involved in the Ebola vaccination program. After working for GAVI, Geert joined the German Center for Infection Research in Cologne as Head of the Vaccine Development Office. He is at present primarily serving as a Biotech/ Vaccine consultant while also conducting his own research on Natural Killer cell-based vaccines.
We should be in the orange tier next week, hell our numbers are getting more closer to the yellow tier. CCC health officers this past year are responsible for kids being held back and their lives being effed up, people getting fatter and increase their chance of getting covid due to lockdowns by closing gyms and telling people to stay in their home and eating more as a result, and people having all sorts of mental issues because of isolation. This is the opposite goal of what the health department is all about.
Yes, but the true test is How many of Us are willing to hold the Tyrants accountable – Never Forget!!!
Technically we should still be in the purple tier. We hit the end of the Thanksgiving to new-years surge at a slightly higher, and worse, level than where we were at before the surge. The reason we were anointed “red” by the powers that can’t be named is they moved the goalposts by manufacturing a number they call the adjusted case rate and using that value to claim “we are good to go.”
A puzzle is that we are worse off than before the holidays despite a significant number of vaccinations. Maybe we should adopt Trump’s advice which was to stop testing. The case rate will disappear like magic (or plain old math if you have faith in science and facts) and we can go back to raking the forests.
Neither the county nor state has disclosed how they compute the adjusted case rate other than they adjust for the number of tests.
As the surges are created by widespread social gatherings there will be surges for Easter, Labor Day, Independence Day, Memorial Day, etc.