Humboldt County Public Health confirmed 12 new COVID-19 cases today and reported the county's 33rd COVID-related death, of a resident in their 80s. The county.
Last Chance Grade Slide Prompts Emergency Declaration; U.S. 101 Open Till 6 p.m. Today
Traffic makes its way over slide debris on U.S. 101 at Last Chance Grade. Photo courtesy of Caltrans
County supervisors ratified an emergency declaration Tuesday related to the ongoing landslide blocking U.S. 101 in the Last Chance Grade area south of Crescent City.
County Administrative Officer and Del Norte Office of Emergency Services Director Jay Sarina declared an emergency Friday following the closure of both U.S. 101 and State Route 169 in the Klamath area.
Noting that the Board of Supervisors has to ratify the declaration within seven days his issuing it, Sarina said he hopes it paves the way for a similar action at the state level. The declaration addresses U.S. 101 and the possible need for more resources if the landslide continues to impact the road, he said.
Posted By Thadeus Greenson@ThadeusGreenson on Mon, Feb 22, 2021 at 3:35 PM
Humboldt County Public Health reported it has confirmed 57 new COVID-19 cases since Friday, as well as two new hospitalizations. With today s results, which came after 1,046 samples were tested with a test-positivity rate of 5.4 percent, the county has now confirmed a total of 3,124 COVID-19 cases to date. Last week s case count of 85 the county s lowest since mid November represents a continued decrease from January, when the county was confirming 200-plus new cases a week. According to the county s dashboard, nine local residents are currently hospitalized with COVID-19. Local available intensive care unit capacity, meanwhile, sits at 25 percent.
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.
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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