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Sacramento County could move to orange tier by June 15

Sacramento County Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said Sacramento County could change tiers if current trends continue.

SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — Pandemic conditions have improved dramatically around the country, including in Sacramento County. In fact, Sacramento County Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye says if current trends continue, the county could move to the orange tier by June 15.

During the winter peak, Sacramento County was, at times, seeing more than 1200 new COVID-19 cases a day. Now, there are fewer than 100 cases per day in the county. Sacramento County also went from a case rate of more than 60 cases per 100,000 people in December 2020 to a current rate of less than 6 per 100,000.

“It’s totally different," said Kasirye. "It looks like we have the light at the end of the tunnel right now."

She largely credits vaccines with making the difference. Vaccinations began in Sacramento County on January 2. As of May 17, 518,076 people in the county have been fully vaccinated.

Kasirye said the effect the vaccines made was obvious.

“The first place where we saw that difference was with the long-term care facilities," explained Kasirye. "In prior times where we had a huge surge, we started having large outbreaks in long-term care facilities. That did not happen this time.”

There are currently 79 people hospitalized in Sacramento County and 22 of those are in the ICU. It’s far below the wintertime high of 518 people hospitalized on December 22, 2020, and 130 in the ICU on January 18, 2021.

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