The rise in COVID-19 infections comes as providers wrestle with how to navigate shifted federal vaccine recommendations.
Sonoma County is experiencing a “mild summer surge” in COVID-19 infections, with most cases being treated in outpatient clinics, Dr. Gary Green, a Sutter Health infectious disease specialist, said Tuesday.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 22% of all people with symptoms tested in Sutter clinics and outpatient medical offices came back positive for COVID-19. In contrast, only 8% of symptomatic patients tested in Sutter’s emergency department have tested positive.
Green said he does not expect the number of COVID-19 infections to reach as high as they did last summer. By late July 2024, 50% of all nasal swabs done in Sutter outpatient clinics were turning up positive.
In Napa County, the COVID caseload remains flat, the county’s top health official said Tuesday.
However, Green said he expected more cases across the region into the final weeks of summer.
“We may see as many cases, but I think the severity is going to be much more mild,” he said. “As the population sees COVID over and over and over again, we build up better immunity.“
Dr. Karen Smith, Sonoma County’s interim health officer, said COVID-19 infections are starting to increase following mild winter and spring seasons. She said virus detection in wastewater nationwide has been increasing, especially in the western U.S.
According to the latest wastewater scan of COVID-19 in the Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park urban area, viral levels are at 64% of maximum historical levels. Last summer, viral levels in local wastewater peaked in late July at 85% of maximum historic levels.
“Hawaii and Florida are having the highest rates, but we’re starting to see that in California and that is a harbinger of the fact that we’re going to see more cases as well,” Smith said. “But we’re not as high as we were last year.”
Smith said recent COVID-19 cases have been “pretty mild” in the general population, with most severe cases occurring among people who are at high risk, such as pregnant women and people with immunosuppressive conditions such as diabetes and obesity.
“We haven’t seen much in the way of ICU admissions or even hospital admissions,” Smith said. “So that’s great and that’s what we’re keeping our fingers crossed we’re going to continue seeing.”
Dr. Christine Wu, Napa County’s health officer and public health director, said COVID-19 detection in wastewater is currently at low viral levels.
“Reports of hospitalizations and deaths also remain low,” Wu said in an email Tuesday afternoon.
Confusing guidance
The news of a summer bump in COVID-19 cases comes as some health care professionals and officials are openly challenging vaccine recommendations now coming from Trump administration.
In May, Heath Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would no longer recommend the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women, calling the move “common sense” and “good science.“
Meanwhile, Kennedy is reportedly planning to remove all members the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an advisory panel that weighs in on what cancer screenings and other preventative health services insurers should cover.
Green said U.S. health agencies which have been a model, a “paradigm for the rest of the world.” But the Trump administration’s changes in the CDC are being executed under leadership that doesn’t adhere to science and is often politically motivated, he said.
Green said Sutter Health, one of the largest health care providers in Northern California, is aligning with medical guidance coming from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which does recommends the COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant women. He said most health care clinicians, including Sutter, will be recommending the vaccine for healthy children, though it is not a school-mandated vaccine.
Green said that healthy children run a much smaller risk of severe illness from COVID-19 and influenza. But he said that while most kids will not develop severe COVID-19 illness, a small number will require hospitalization and some died.
Green said the COVID-19 vaccine and the flu vaccine reduce the risk of serious illness, and they “lower the viral burden” in a community, reducing the risk of transmission to vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems.
Dr. Jessica August, an infectious disease expert for Kaiser Permanente, the region’s largest health care provider, said she’ll adhere to guidance from the Infectious Diseases Society of America, which rejected Kennedy’s revamp of recommendations in May. The group urged insurers to continue existing coverage for Americans who chose to get the vaccine.
“We expect and are planning on offering COVID-19 vaccination to those ages 6 months and older in the upcoming season,” August said.
Smith, the Sonoma County interim health officer, pointed out that the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices did not completely pull its COVID-19 vaccine recommendation for “health children.”
The advisory body recommended that parents of children ages 6 months to 17 years should consult with their medical provider about whether to give their kids the vaccine.
Dr. Eric Hodes, chief medical officer of Providence Sonoma County, which operates the largest local hospital network, said in an email Providence has also seen an recent uptick in COVID-19 cases.
Hodes said “from an adult infectious disease perspective, we will continue to recommend the most updated COVID-19 vaccination for adults 18 years and older.”
Hodes said Providence obstetrics department will also be following the recommendations of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which “recommends vaccination during pregnancy for the benefits of maternal and fetal well-being.“
“We recommend continuing COVID vaccinations for all pediatric patients (older than) 6 months, but especially those at highest risk (asthma, medical complexity, etc.),” Hodes said.
You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.
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