click to enlarge Courtesy of the county of Humboldt Humboldt County Public Health staff members Suzanne Collins, left, and Amethyst Forrest receive and store a delivered shipment of Pfizer vaccine from Monterey County.
When a handful of officials at the forefront of the county s COVID-19 response sat down to a virtual press conference May 5, they made clear Humboldt County was at an inflection point. In sharp contrast to the rest of the state, local case numbers were ballooning, with the county having confirmed 267 new cases and a rash of hospitalizations over the previous 14 days as the state continued preparations to lift most pandemic restrictions and reopen its economy by mid June.