California County Recommends Use Of High-Quality Face Masks

Placer County Public Health has issued a warning for residents to use "higher quality" face masks like surgical masks or KN965 masks to protect against the highly infectious delta variant, as the county faces more people in its hospitals and in the ICU now than it ever has during the pandemic.

Photo Insert: The prevalence of the delta requires additional safety measures.

According to the Placer County Public Health Department, 220 people were admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 on Monday compared to 208 on Dec. 29 during the winter surge, according to a report from KCRA 3 News.

Last week, the county also surpassed its previous peak of 34 people with COVID-19 in the ICU from Jan. 9. That number has continued to rise, hitting an all-time high of 47 Monday.

"It's overwhelmingly unvaccinated folks," said Dr. Rob Oldham, health officer and director of Health & Human Services for Placer County.

"I just toured Sutter Roseville yesterday, and it's been about 90% of the people coming in requiring hospitalization are unvaccinated and definitely a much younger group of folks." Placer County Public Health said that COVID-19 patients take nearly one-third of licensed hospital beds, a higher proportion than hospitals in other communities.

California Nurses Association President Catherine Kennedy is a registered nurse who works for Kaiser Permanente in Roseville, which she said is close to capacity. “We’re surging,” she said.

“Our ER is inundated and this is not just at Kaiser but at other medical centers around us having tents put up because there’s not enough room at our ERs.”

Not all of the people being treated at area hospitals are from the county. Placer County Public Health said 22 of the 47 people in the ICU on Monday and 100 of the 220 in hospitals overall were Placer County residents.

Placer County Public Health said that besides hospitalizations “early signs” are showing more school-related COVID-19 cases than in the past.

“School-related cases were uncommon and largely isolated with previous COVID-19 variants, yet early signs point to more students and staff who are turning up positive as a result of a COVID exposure,” it said in a release.

The health agency encourages people ages 12 years and older to get vaccinated.

WEEKLY FEATURE : PAL READY TO SOAR WITH PANDEMIC