With the big move to the yellow tier in San Mateo County this week, the Saturday update deserves a fresh post. You can find our year+ of tracking at this post and the prior one. Dinner downtown last night was a full-house affair with the conversational noise levels reaching pre-pandemic levels plus a tad. I went up to the new Outdoor Supply Hardware as well and a few people were wandering the outdoor nursery area sans masks--it felt a little weird, but we will get used to it. I will still track the numbers for the week which are:
77.4% of the County over age 16 is vaccinated and the age limit to do so dropped to 12 (Pfizer). That is a small increase from last week.
Total Cases: 41,909 (+162 in the County)
Positivity: .7% (down another tenth)
Burlingame Cases: 1,244 (ONLY ONE new case this week; 34 in the last 30 days).
Now you see how we got to yellow. Here's what that means:
Dr. Curtis Chan, deputy health officer with San Mateo County, said the change moves the county away from the mentality of strict government restrictions and toward a new era of common courtesy, community agreements and more relaxed mask scenarios.
“We are not emphasizing health officer orders. We want to emphasize caring. For fully vaccinated people, face coverings are not required, but also social agreement and common courtesy could be taken into consideration,” Chan said. Chan believes there will be a reduced need for mask restrictions in the coming months, and he hopes mask restrictions will be additionally loosened by July 4. “I would hope that would be around the date when mask social agreements are going to be eased up a little bit,” he said.
"Social agreement". Got that?
The word of the week this week was "booster". Several sources think the Sept/Oct timeframe will bring that recommendation, but again the numbers aren't much different than the last few weeks.....here is the weekend update
92.8% of the County over age 16 is vaccinated up another 0.7% from last week, about the same rise seven weeks in a row. Slow but sure.
Total Cases: 47,185 (+954 in the County for the week which is about the same as last week)
Positivity: 3.6% (up .1%)
Burlingame Cases: 1,452 (up 44 from last week--so a slight uptick. Cases in the last 30 days: 157)
Plenty of companies are delaying their back-to-the-office dates, but schools are opening so the dynamic may shift a bit soon.
Posted by: Joe - Weekend Update on the Numbers | August 21, 2021 at 01:14 PM
The word of the week this week was "plateau". Several sources think we have reached a plateau and the numbers suggest that as well.....here is the weekend update
92.1% of the County over age 16 is vaccinated. Apparently there is some new demographic data that is affecting the count since this rate is .7% LOWER than last week. No real explanation given.
Total Cases: 48,061 (+876 in the County for the week which is down a bit.)
Positivity: 2.9% (down .7%)
Burlingame Cases: 1,493 (up 41 from last week--so pretty flat. Cases in the last 30 days: 167)
There was not much new news about forthcoming boosters, but I did get a message from Walgreens that flu shots are here...jab away.
Posted by: Joe - Weekend Update on the Numbers | August 28, 2021 at 12:25 PM
The "plateau" tilted upwards a little this week in the County, but not that much compared to what we read in the headlines.....here is the weekend update
92.8% of the County over age 16 is vaccinated. Somehow we recaptured the .7% that we lost last week. Back to what it was two weeks ago!
Total Cases: 49,308 (+1,247 in the County for the week which is up 42% from last week's increase.)
Positivity: 2.9% (same as last week)
Burlingame Cases: 1,538 (up 45 from last week--so about the same rate. Curiously, cases in the last 30 days only went up by 10 to 177. There is something amiss with the data on this metric.)
As the B'game Air Quality Index has bounced around 100 the last few days it is hard to tell who is wearing their masks outdoors for Covid or for smoke.
Posted by: Joe - Weekend Update on the Numbers | September 04, 2021 at 11:29 AM
The words for the week appear to be "mandate" which is quite a change from the "social agreement" noted in the original post and "booster". You can take the County's 2-minute survey on boosters here https://bit.ly/3E69thv .....here is the weekend update
93.2% of the County over age 16 is vaccinated. Up 0.4% for the week.
Total Cases: 49,921 (+613 in the County for the week which is half of last week's increase.)
Positivity: 2.9% (same as last week and the week before)
Burlingame Cases: 1,567 (up 29 from last week--also dropping. Cases in the last 30 days are 159.)
Posted by: Joe | September 11, 2021 at 12:36 PM
The words for the week are still "mandate" and "booster". Here is the weekend update showing lots of green indicators:
93.7% of the County over age 16 is vaccinated. Up 0.5% for the week.
Total Cases: 50,525 (+604 in the County for the week which is flat from last week.)
Positivity: 2.2% (way down by .7% - the largest drop in a long time.)
Burlingame Cases: 1,590 (up 23 from last week--dropping further. Cases in the last 30 days are 133 showing the downward trend.)
Between the 93.7% vax rate for age 16+ and the natural immunity of the 50,525 people who have had Covid, the various types of mandates are going to be a tougher sell than before.
Posted by: Joe | September 18, 2021 at 10:56 AM
I was bummed I missed the show at the Black Cat nightclub. I would have liked to say hi to London Breed. Here is the weekend update showing lots of green indicators:
94.6% of the County over age 16 is vaccinated. Noticeably up 0.9% for the week.
Total Cases: 51,046 (+521 in the County for the week which is down a little from last week.)
Positivity: 1.8% (way down again by .4% - down 1.1% in the last two weeks.)
Burlingame Cases: 1,606 (up 16 from last week--so still dropping week-to-week. Cases in the last 30 days are 115 showing the downward trend.)
Aside from booster news, the big question is when the County will start calling out breakthrough cases and give us some sense of how they happen.
Posted by: Joe | September 25, 2021 at 01:22 PM
This week brought the schoolkids mandate and a new treatment in pill form from Merk. Here is the weekend update showing lots of green indicators:
95.0% of the County over age 16 is vaccinated. Incremental improvements from here will be harder as we are only up 0.4% for the week.
Total Cases: 51,518 (+472 in the County for the week which is down a little more from last week.)
Positivity: 1.5% (way down again by .3% - down 1.4% in the last three weeks.)
Burlingame Cases: 1,622 (up 16 from last week--the same number as the prior week. Cases in the last 30 days number 85 showing the downward trend continues.)
There is still no County news about breakthrough cases, but I hear booster shots are available for scheduling from a variety of providers. The current recommendation is to stick with whatever flavor you got originally, so only Pfizer so far.
Posted by: Joe | October 02, 2021 at 12:31 PM
The word for the week is still "mask mandate" as the officials gyrate on whether or not to drop the indoor requirement. Here is the weekend update showing lots of green indicators yet again:
95.7% of the County over age 16 is vaccinated. That's a slight uptick to +0.7% verses last week. And not that many people play for the Warriors.
Total Cases: 51,847 (+329 in the County for the week which is down nicely from last week.)
Positivity: 1.3% (down again by .3% - down 1.6% in the last four weeks - cut by more than half.)
Burlingame Cases: 1,573 (the number MAGICALLY DECLINED by 49. Who knows why? Cases in the last 30 days number 52 showing the downward trend accelerates, but can we believe them?)
In order to drop the masks indoors we apparently need to have 80% of the county vaxxed. That is about 611K people which is higher than the number shown as complete, but the number shown as vaxxed is 637K. The DJ tried to make sense of it all here https://bit.ly/3oO3s3Y. 329 new cases in a population of 3/4 million people doesn't seem like a high transmission rate......
Posted by: Joe | October 09, 2021 at 12:34 PM
The word for the week is "booster" as the Moderna booster got the OK and the J&J OK is on the horizon. Also mixing them up may be OK'ed as well meaning a run on Moderna is likely. The Pfizer booster is now available at the SM Event Center.
From the County site: October 14, 2021: San Mateo County Health processed a correction to the vaccination data dashboards that has decreased the number of vaccinated county residents by about 5 percent.:
90.7% of the County over age 16 is vaccinated. Whatever increase happened this week is totally erased by the 5% slip-up.
Total Cases: 52,141 (+294 in the County for the week which is down slightly from last week.)
Positivity: 1.2% (down again by .1% - down 1.7% in the last five weeks)
Burlingame Cases: 1,589 (up by 16 from last week's questionable number. Cases in the last 30 days number 48 showing the downward trend continues.)
Posted by: Joe | October 16, 2021 at 02:42 PM
The word for the week is still "booster" as the Moderna and the J&J OK's arrived along with the mix-and-match OK. I talked to one person this week who was boosted. It will be the new badge of honor.
91% of the County over age 16 is vaccinated. Up 0.3%.
Total Cases: 52,466 (+325 in the County for the week which is up slightly from last week, but barely.)
Positivity: 1.0% (down again and dropping into the hard-to-decipher range)
Burlingame Cases: 1,602 (up by 13 from last week. Cases in the last 30 days dropped by 2 to 46.)
Posted by: Joe | October 23, 2021 at 10:41 AM
All jacked up on Moderna and Pfizer booster.
Now to mass for the Medicine of Immortality in the Sacrament.
Covering those bases…
Posted by: Peter Garrison | October 23, 2021 at 02:51 PM
That is so Pete Garrison of you! Can I get an Amen?
Posted by: Paloma Ave | October 23, 2021 at 06:50 PM
Three quarters of an amen. Mass is capitalized, Pastor.
Posted by: Joe | October 23, 2021 at 09:43 PM
Back from Mass.
So jacked.
Posted by: Peter Garrison | October 24, 2021 at 11:04 AM
The words for the week are "booster", masks and hamburgers. Getting a booster appointment at Walgreen's is easy--ask me how I know. Marin is about to lift the indoor mask mandate and In 'n Out is giving the old in-and-out one-finger salute to the inspectors. Here's the story for San Mateo County this week:
91.3% of the County over age 16 is vaccinated. Up another 0.3%.
Total Cases: 52,852 (+386 in the County for the week which is up slightly from last week and the week before, but barely.)
Positivity: 1.0% (flat)
Burlingame Cases: 1,618 (up by 16 from last week. Cases in the last 30 days up a little to 54.)
It looks like the kids are next in line.
Posted by: Joe | October 30, 2021 at 12:16 PM