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Though he was only able to give ballpark figures, Del Norte County’s public health officer said the community “picked up” nearly 100 new COVID-19 cases since last week.

There are about 130 active cases in Del Norte County currently, Dr. Warren Rehwaldt estimated, though that number may be higher. The county has had about 400 confirmed COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, Rehwaldt told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Thursday.

“We were at 313 last Wednesday and I’m sure we picked up close to 100 during the week,” he said, adding that nurses are still so busy with contact tracing they haven’t been able to update the county’s COVID-19 Information Hub. “We’re assigning it to other staff in the county. It should be updated within a day hopefully, certainly by next week.”

As of 5:58 p.m. Nov. 25, there were 93 active cases in Del Norte County, according to its COVID-19 Information Hub. Most of the cases were linked to gatherings, which was also the case for the new cases Rehwaldt spoke of Thursday.

Rehwaldt said some of the new cases were also the result of workplace exposure and travel as well as household contacts to someone who was infected.

“Pretty much the same sort of pattern we see recently,” he said.
Del Norte County has been in the most restrictive purple tier on the state’s “Blueprint for a Safer Economy” since Nov. 24. This tier indicates widespread risk of COVID-19 in the county. Del Norte is one of 51 California counties to be in the most restrictive tier.

As of Wednesday, there were nearly 1.3 million active COVID-19 cases in California with 19,437 deaths, according to the state’s Covid-19 web page.

On Thursday, citing the surge in cases, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a regional stay at home order that would go into effect within 48 hours in regions with less than 15 percent intensive care unit capacity.

The order will remain in effect for at least three weeks, according to the state, after which time it would be lifted when a region’s projected ICU capacity meets or exceeds 15 percent.

According to Del Norte Emergency Services Manager Kymmie Scott, Sutter Coast Hospital has six ICU beds.

“The main concern across the state is not so much beds — we can create additional beds — it’s staffing,” she said. “We can’t create additional staffing.”

Meanwhile, after receiving complaints about people not in compliance with recent safety measures designed to limit the spread of COVID-19 — which for most businesses means operating outside, Del Norte County has established a compliance hotline.

However, though it’s a place for the public to lodge complaints, no one is looking to shut down businesses or put people in jail, Scott said.

“If there’s egregious non-compliance, if a businesses are putting people’s health and safety at risk and don’t want to come into compliance, their information will be turned into the appropriate state authority for follow up,” she said. “It’s not a snitch-on-your-neighbor line and we’re not encouraging people to rat out neighbors for having a backyard barbecue. It’s mostly intended for businesses that are severely out of compliance or massive gatherings — we’ve had a couple of reports of a couple hundred people getting together for a wedding. That not only helps preemptively to chat with folks to establish safety guidelines, but afterwards it helps with contact tracing.”

Calling the hotline at (707) 464-0865 will take people to a voicemail system where they’re invited to leave a message with or without their contact information, Scott said.

Del Norte’s entry into the purple tier on the state’s “Blueprint for a Safer Economy” prompted both Crescent City and Del Norte County to limit public access to its offices.

Crescent City is urging the public to conduct business online, by phone, or, if necessary, by appointment.

According to a Nov. 25 news release, the public may request in-person meetings at county facilities by contacting individual departments directly.

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