Is the COVID-19 surge over in El Dorado County?

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There are some promising signs that the COVID-19 surge is over in El Dorado County. If current data continues in the direction it has been headed, El Dorado County is likely near the peak of the post holidays COVID-19 surge.

The surge of cases and hospitalizations began two weeks after Halloween, then continued through the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years holidays.

The El Dorado County Public Health Director Dr. Nancy Williams says we won't reliably know until another week or two has passed if the surge has hit its peak.

"It typically takes a few days after exposure before people develop illness, additional time before people may seek testing, and yet more time before results are returned," said Dr. Williams. "That said, the California Department of Public Health's data dashboard indicates that the current surge statewide seems to have crested and may be subsiding a bit."

The County is likely to be experiencing the same trend.

Even though the Martin Luther King holiday weekend was full of visitors in South Lake Tahoe, Dr. Williams said they are not expecting anything more than a tiny surge, if any.

This holiday is different than Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years because people are less likely to involve cross-state and multigenerational gatherings.

As of January 21, 2021, there have been 7,949 cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic in El Dorado County, 2,131 of those in the South Lake Tahoe region. While the numbers grow daily, the rate of increase over the past 14 days is starting to slow.

In California, there were 19,673 new cases on Thursday, the lowest since December 2, 2020.

Statistics for the Lake Tahoe region of El Dorado County:

January 21: County 14-day rate of new cases 739 in county. South Lake Tahoe 378 cases in previous 14 days, 1250 per 100,000 people. 7949 cases in county. 49 deaths to date in county.

January 11: County 14-day rate of new cases 787. South Lake Tahoe 400 cases in previous 14 days, 1322 per 100,000 people. 7041 cases in county. 33 deaths to date in county.

December 31: County 14-day rate of new cases 675. South Lake Tahoe 170 cases in previous 14 days, 562 per 100,000 people. 5719 cases in county. 24 deaths to date.

December 1: County 14-day rate of new cases 852. South Lake Tahoe 14-day rate of new cases 296, 979 per 100,000 people. 2581 cases in county. Four deaths to date in county.

October 30: County 14-day rate of new cases 58. South Lake Tahoe 14-day rate of new cases 29, 96 per 100,000 people. 1388 cases in county. One death to date in county.

Local hospitals hit there surge in patients and have seen a decrease in those needed care in both hospital and ICU beds.

Though the numbers are starting to look better, the danger of the spread of coronavirus continues and the public needs to take precautions to prevent the spread.

Vaccination of residents will be key to preventing more cases, and more spread of the coronavirus. The County's supply of vaccines depends on production from the current two vaccine manufacturers along with additional ones currently in the pipeline, the State's allocation to El Dorado County, and people's desire to be vaccinated, said Dr. Williams.

The County will ramp up and have vaccinations reach more people in a faster manner when they receive greater amounts of both Pfizer and Moderna (and others when available). Dr. Williams said they would reach mass vaccination clinic levels and planning for that situation in occurring now.

To date, the County has received 7,800 Pfizer and 8,900 Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.

For the county COVID-19 dashboard, visit https://www.edcgov.us/Government/hhsa/Pages/EDCCOVID-19-Cases.aspx

County vaccine page - https://www.edcgov.us/Government/hhsa/Pages/EDCCOVID-19-vaccine.aspx

County vaccine clinic page - https://www.edcgov.us/Government/hhsa/Pages/EDCCOVID-19-clinics.aspx