Six New COVID Cases, 64 Percent of Eligible Population Received at Least One Dose northcoastjournal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from northcoastjournal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
One year ago on Feb. 20, the news came: Humboldt had its first confirmed case of COVID-19, which at the time had yet to be detected almost anywhere else in the nation.
The individual, who had recently returned from China, recovered after seeking treatment for flu-like symptoms at St. Joseph Hospital. When the test came back positive, Humboldt became the first rural county in the United States to have a confirmed case, according to the New York Times.
For hospital staff, it was a monumental moment. That s when it was like, OK, this can actually happen here, St. Joseph emergency room charge nurse Kristen Beddow told the Journal in December.
Posted By Kimberly Wear@kimberly wear on Sat, Feb 20, 2021 at 11:41 AM One year ago today, the news came: Humboldt had its first confirmed case of COVID-19, which at the time had yet to be detected almost anywhere else in the nation. The individual, who had recently returned from China, recovered after seeking treatment for flu-like symptoms at St. Joseph Hospital. Exactly a month would pass before a second case, also connected to travel, was recorded. Soon, the first cases of community spread were identified. In late March of 2020, Humboldt County was placed under a local shelter-in-place order that shuttered all but essential businesses, sent students home to continue their educations under now familiar distance learning and brought life as most people knew it to an abrupt halt.
In late January, Humboldt County Public Health said they submitted dozens of samples from individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 at the Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness Facility, along with dozens of random samples from the Humboldt County Public Health Lab (PHL), for routine genomic surveillance. Genomic sequencing of the samples was conducted by Chan Zuckerberg Biohub (CZ Biohub), a nonprofit medical research organization that has been responsible for about 45% of the genomic surveillance in California.
SIGN UP:
Senior Biosecurity Fellow at CZ Biohub Dr. Patrick Ayscue said, “Mutation is a natural feature of viruses, so it is not unexpected that we will see variants occasionally arise in outbreaks.” Dr. Ayscue went on to say, “What is pretty remarkable here is Humboldt County Public Health was in a position to identify a new and potentially dangerous variant, contain it and successfully stop it before it had the opportunity to spread more broadly. It’s really
Posted By Thadeus Greenson@ThadeusGreenson on Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 8:36 AM click to enlarge Shutterstock Public Health reported this morning that a never-before-seen COVID-19 variant has been identified in Humboldt County, though evidence suggests it was limited to a single outbreak with no indication of broader spread. The variant was found in 16 COVID-19 positive samples from Humboldt County, all of them linked back to the outbreak at Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness Facility, which saw dozens of staff members and residents contract the virus with 13 resident deaths. Discovery of the variant may help explain how the virus was able to efficiently and quickly spread throughout the skilled nursing facility with devastating effect.