Halloween was a success this year; on my street anyway. We had more Trick or Treaters than we have had for at least five years. Tonight we turn back the clocks--yet another pointless changing of our bio-rhythms. The grocery stores are full up with turkeys and in-boxes are filling with "early Black Friday deals". Talk about unclear on the concept. So let's use this past week as our Covid baseline for tracking purposes as the holiday gatherings accelerate and the boosters come available to those who will avail themselves.
Here's the data from San Mateo County for this week:
91.7% of the County over age 16 is vaccinated. Up another 0.4% from last week.
Total Cases: 53,201 +349 in the County for the week. The new positives have been running about +350 for weeks.
Positivity: 1.0% This gauge is flat again and with a mandate for weekly testing of those who refuse vax, it will likely stay very low as the denominator increases.
Burlingame Cases: 1,631 Up by 13 from last week. Cases in the last 30 days up a little to 60.
Even with some office workers being required to show up in the office and families thinking it's time to act like families again, the foundation of a safe holiday season seems like it is in place in San Mateo County. Let's hope so. Here is a chart from the Daily Post that shows the variation in death rates by county in the Bay Area--a 22.9% swing is huge and somewhat unexplained to date.
Happy New Year everyone. It is having a rough start for many people as Omicron is definitely more highly transmissible than prior variants. I went from personally knowing of one or two people who had Covid to more than a dozen in one week. Here are the County numbers:
94.3% of the County over age 12 is vaccinated. Up 0.3%.
Total Cases: 60,008 +3,144 in the County for the week--Double last week's increase that was 4X the week before.
Positivity: 3.9% - up a full 2.0%
Burlingame Cases: 1,921 Up by 132 from last week--almost double last week's increase. Cases in the last 30 days are 256.
It's time to be extra careful out there. The press seems say this will peak quickly, but who knows?
Posted by: Joe | January 01, 2022 at 12:17 PM
This is (at least) day 3 of Peets on Burlingame Avenue being shut; there is a CLOSED sign in the door, but no other verbiage. According to Peets corporate, it's due to Staffing issues (likely Covid related).
Posted by: Jennifer Pfaff | January 05, 2022 at 10:58 AM
CalMatter.org is reporting this today: California on Tuesday notched its highest COVID-19 test positivity rate since the pandemic began at a whopping 20.4% — a figure that doesn’t include rapid at-home test results not reported to public health authorities.
The County Dashboard has the 30 day positivity up to 6.7% when it was just 3.9% last Saturday (see above). That would mesh with a 20% rate over the last few days.
Posted by: Joe | January 05, 2022 at 04:40 PM
I have a friend whose wife is a doctor. He said she called a patient the other day to tell him he was covid positive. She said there was a lot of noise in the background and she asked him where he was -- he said he was at work. As a barista at Peets. Now, I don't know WHICH Peets. But as my friend said, "Can you imagine how many people this guy infected?" Let's just call him Covid Larry, as in rhymes with Typhoid Mary -- who was also an asymptomatic carrier of disease. Though I suspect "Larry" had symptoms if he went to the doctor to be tested!
Posted by: HMB | January 05, 2022 at 07:06 PM
I, Gavinius Caesar, hereby proclaim that I have no idea what to do right now. I had some ideas but they all seemed bad so I will just do nothing except worry about the climate in 2050.
Posted by: Gavinius Caesar | January 05, 2022 at 08:11 PM
We may well be better off if Caesar doesn't do anything at all. Just sayin"
Posted by: Just Sayin' | January 06, 2022 at 08:36 PM
I've known all week that this Saturday's update would be big and it is. The week saw the Biden administration do the Big Pivot away from "we're gonna stop this virus" to "we're gonna learn to live with this virus". Some of us knew this a year ago or more.
Here are the numbers for the week:
94.7% of the County over age 12 is vaccinated. Up another 0.3%.
Total Cases: 67.141 - +7,133 in the County for the week--more than double last week's increase and perhaps the highest week ever. The only way to gauge it is to go back and read the old posts' update comments.
Positivity: 2.9% - down 1.0% which seems odd unless a lot of people without Covid are getting tested just in case.
Burlingame Cases: 2,162 - Up by 241 from last week--almost double last week's increase that was double the week before. Cases in the last 30 days are 475.
It's a great time to take extra care out there. One thing I've noticed is the public messaging around sanitizing your hands has disappeared. It makes one think that perhaps the transmission is really all in the air?
I talked to several people who got it in the last two weeks and it ranged from "no real symptoms, I just got tested because someone I was around got it" to "I went to bed for a day and a half and felt OK after that". That's learn-to-live-with-it spectrum.
Posted by: Joe | January 08, 2022 at 12:01 PM
I know people who probably have covid (sick with the symptoms) who are not bothering with the test because they can't get an appt or don't want to wait in line. And since they work from home or are retired they figure it's just easier to isolate than deal with the hassle. So take that positivity rate with a grain of salt. A family of 6 I know had to get tested after one of them got sick. It took 6 days to get an appt, they had to wait in line 2 hours (even with appt) plus had to pay $150 a pop. (Not clear why insurance didnt cover -- I suggested she seek reimbursement.) How many people are going to go through all that hassle?
Posted by: HMB | January 08, 2022 at 06:01 PM
Wow. $150 a pop. I did takeout from Pizza My Heart last night where they shut down in-restaurant dining a couple of days ago. The Comicle has an article today saying that is becoming more common as Omicron progresses.
Posted by: Joe | January 10, 2022 at 01:15 PM
The numbers are up again this week, but I was actually expecting them to be up by more than they they increased. Apparently some hot spots around the country seem like they have peaked. Talking to some B'gamers who have had it, there are a range of symptoms from nothing to a couple of days of best rest with flu-like symptoms. One wag said he was glad he finally got it over with..........
Here are the numbers for the week:
95.2% of the County over age 12 is vaccinated. Up another 0.5%.
Total Cases: 75,672 - +8,531 in the County for the week--up 1,400 from last week.
Positivity: 13.3% which is a massive jump and may underestimate reality since some people are just assuming they have it and not bothering to get tested--just straight to isolating.
Burlingame Cases: 2,420 - Up by 258 from last week--basically the same increase. Cases in the last 30 days are 709.
Stay safe.
Posted by: Joe | January 15, 2022 at 01:41 PM
It was a huge week for Covid in the County. New positives almost doubled from the big number of last week. 140 people are in the hospital with it and acute care and ICU beds are low, but there are "surge" beds at the ready per the County website.
Here are the numbers for the week:
95.6% of the County over age 12 is vaccinated. Up another 0.4%, but I did not see what the boosted rate is.
Total Cases: 92,034 - +16,362 in the County for the week--almost DOUBLE
Positivity: 3.7% which is odd since last week it was 13.3%. I wonder which number is wrong since they can't really both be right?
Burlingame Cases: 2,420 - Up by 417 from last week--that is up 62% from last week. Cases in the last 30 days jumped 345 to 1,054.
Per this piece in the DJ, the County thinks things may have peaked:
https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/covid-19-cases-may-have-peaked-in-san-mateo-county-but-officials-encourage-vigilance/article_ec8beefe-7b3a-11ec-9b49-6307185f59d4.html?utm_source=smdailyjournal.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fheadlines%2F%3F-dc%3D1642863619&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline
and there is a sort of twisty explanation of the testing numbers in there.
Posted by: Joe | January 23, 2022 at 12:51 PM
It was another big week for Covid in the County and we may not be totally sure how big since they made this announcement:
"We apologize for the turnaround time delays that many residents are experiencing. Unfortunately, the staffing disruptions that are being felt across all sectors are also affecting the turnaround time for test processing results.
The County is working with Virus Geeks and our other partners to address this issue." Inquiring minds wonder what a "Virus Geek" is.
Here are the numbers for the week:
95.8% of the County over age 12 is vaccinated. Up another 0.2%.
Total Cases: 100,218 - +8,184 in the County for the week--so half of last week's peak and similar to the week prior.
Positivity: 4.0% given the notice about delays above.
Burlingame Cases: 2,420 - Up by 633 from last week--that is up 52% from last week which was up 62% from two weeks ago. Cases in the last 30 days are 1,158 which is a smaller increase (+104) than last week.
While it appears the latest peak has been crested, the numbers are still high compared to the pre-holiday period.
Posted by: Joe - Weekend Update on the Numbers | January 29, 2022 at 01:04 PM
https://virusgeeks.com/
Posted by: HMB | January 29, 2022 at 01:49 PM
This editorial in the WSJ is just too good not to post:
The White House is apparently experiencing buyer’s remorse over its appointment of Xavier Becerra to run the Health and Human Services Department. This is the cost of indulging identity politics in a pandemic.
According to a cast of anonymous dozens in a Washington Post story, the Biden Administration is “frustrated” with Mr. Becerra’s failure to “coordinat[e] the nation’s vast health bureaucracy” to handle the virus, allowing “confusing and sometimes conflicting messages.” The HHS chief is accused of being in over his head and, according to one unnamed senior Administration official, “taking too passive a role” in virus management.
This comes as no surprise to anyone who has observed Mr. Becerra over the years. We wonder what the White House expected in naming a progressive lawyer, with no healthcare experience, to run a sprawling $1.5 trillion agency charged with overseeing Mr. Biden’s campaign promise to “shut down the virus.”
Mr. Becerra was a California Congressman for 24 years until then Gov. Jerry Brown tapped him in 2016 to replace Kamala Harris as California’s Attorney General. Mr. Becerra’s tenure was notable mainly for filing some 100 lawsuits against the Trump Administration, and endorsing Medicare for All. President Biden had many more capable candidates for HHS, but he caved to woke pressure to appoint a progressive Hispanic.
The damage has been real and goes far beyond the White House gripe about “messaging.” The Administration is rightly under fire for being unprepared for Covid’s Omicron surge, and Mr. Becerra’s agency is at the center of a testing and treatment shortage that has resulted in preventable deaths. One upside of his fumbling is that HHS hasn’t roiled health-insurance and drug markets with a regulatory onslaught, but no doubt that will change.
Even as Administration leakers trash Mr. Becerra, there’s no sign Mr. Biden plans to sack him. Why not? It would “draw the ire of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and other grass-roots groups that pressed Biden to appoint more Latinos to his Cabinet,” writes the Post. The problem with putting identity above qualifications is that you can’t get rid of an appointee even if he proves to be incompetent.
-------------------
Check out the sprawling organization that a guy who probably never managed more than a thousand people (for a very short time) has to lead: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Health_and_Human_Services
That tallies to about 128,000 people.
Posted by: Joe | February 02, 2022 at 12:31 PM
The news about "passing the peak" is reflected in this week's numbers. The news about fake and mismanaged testing centers is concerning and might account for the fluctuations in positivity percentages.
Here are the County numbers for the week:
96.1% of the County over age 12 is vaccinated. Up another 0.3%.
Total Cases: 104,987 - +4,769 in the County for the week--so down by almost half of last week's increase (-42%).
Positivity: 14.6% - quite high. Maybe virusgeeks is working to fix the numbers?
Burlingame Cases: 3,154 - Up by 317 from last week (the total above for last week is wrong, forgot to add in the increase). Cases in the last 30 days dropped to 1006 showing we are over the peak.
Just moving about B'game for dinners, etc it seems quite busy in a normal way. Fingers crossed.
Posted by: Joe - Weekend Update on the Numbers | February 05, 2022 at 10:38 AM
The big news for the week is "San Mateo County will follow the state in lifting its indoor mask mandate for vaccinated persons on February 16."--Wednesday!
Here are the County numbers for the week supporting that call:
96.3% of the County over age 12 is vaccinated. Up another 0.2%. The number is somewhat irrelevant at this point since the real question is "who's boosted?" I talked to someone this week who was planning their second booster soon.
Total Cases: 107,483 - +2,496 in the County for the week--so down by almost half of last week's increase (-48%).
Positivity: 4.1% Last week's anomaly disappeared or perhaps they just shut down more fraudulent testing centers.
Burlingame Cases: 3,154 - Up by 122 or 38.5% of last week's cases. Cases in the last 30 days dropped to 784.
I guess some friend of mine took it upon them self to order me some freebie rapid tests, because two 2-packs just showed up in the mail. You can get yours at https://www.covidtests.gov/
Posted by: Joe - Weekend Update on the Numbers | February 12, 2022 at 12:14 PM
This past week will be remembered for Maskless Wednesday - 2/16/22. I was out and about later in the week and lots of people are quite comfortable ditching the masks and mingling in crowds. We shall see how that works out.
96.5% of the County over age 12 is vaccinated. Up another 0.2%. The chart showing "additional boosters" is a bit hard to read here: https://www.smchealth.org/data-dashboard/vaccination-totals-locations-data
Total Cases: 116,9843 - +9,501 in the County for the week! That has to be a mistake somewhere in the past counting since if it were true we would be talking about more mandates returning.
Positivity: 8.6% which is more than double last week's rate.
Burlingame Cases: 3,757 - Up by 481 over the revised number for last week. Cases in the last 30 days dropped to 574 which also cannot be right if there were 481 this week.
So we have to conclude either the tracking is off or the powers-that-be have thrown in the towel on certain aspects of the pandemic-now endemic.
Posted by: Joe - Weekend Update on the Numbers | February 19, 2022 at 01:23 PM
Here's the weekend update for a week that saw quite a return to "normal". I did several "normal" things involving being indoors with people. So far so good. Cannot say the same for a friend from out of state who had a rough 3 day ride with omicron this week.
96.7% of the County over age 12 is vaccinated. Up another 0.2%. The B'game percentage is 100%, but of course that is not accurate if one believes boosters are needed.
Total Cases: 118,133 - 1,149 in the County for the week! Last week's high number must have been some catch-up from prior weeks as this looks more in line.
Positivity: 6.2%
Burlingame Cases: 3,795 - Up by 38. Cases in the last 30 days dropped to 346.
Let's hope this continues and omicron B.2 doesn't hit hard.
Posted by: Joe | February 26, 2022 at 11:42 AM
No problem with Omnicron B.2.
Just shelter in place for two weeks to lower the curve.
Posted by: Spurinna | February 27, 2022 at 02:43 PM
The slowdown in Covid continues as things reopen. Walking around without a mask indoors is starting to feel normal. Here's the numbers for the week:
96.8% of the County over age 12 is vaccinated. Up another 0.1%.
Total Cases: 119012 - Up 879 in the County for the week!
Positivity: 3.5% so way down
Burlingame Cases: 3,828 - Up by 33 so about the same as last week. Cases in the last 30 days dropped to 195.
Posted by: Joe | March 05, 2022 at 10:16 AM
As word of the stealth Omicron or the Delta-Omicron hybrid filters out (apparently centered in NYC) it was a quiet Covid week in B'game and San Mateo County.
Here are the numbers for the week:
96.8% of the County over age 12 is vaccinated. No change from last week. And still no separate booster reporting.
Total Cases: 119,679 - Up 667 in the County for the week although I would guess anyone who has the mild version (tested or just suspected) wouldn't bother to report it. I haven't even seen how one might do that.
Positivity: 2.4% so way down again.
Burlingame Cases: 3,855 - Up by 27 so leveling off. Cases in the last 30 days are down to 136.
Posted by: Joe | March 12, 2022 at 12:25 PM
Either the slowdown continues or with at-home testing and light symptoms, reporting new cases is dropping off. I'm guessing a little of both.
Here are the numbers for the week:
96.7% of the County over age 12 is vaccinated. It actually dropped a tenth somehow.
Total Cases: 120,030 - Up 354 in the County for the week --about half of last week.
Positivity: 2.0% so down again by .4%.
Burlingame Cases: 3,867 - Up by 12 so down by half as well. Cases in the last 30 days are down to 85.
Enjoy maskless living and hope things stay that way.
Posted by: Joe | March 19, 2022 at 10:19 AM
New case counts bumped up a bit in the County this week but are still quite low:
Total Cases: 120,865 - Up 835 in the County for the week --about twice last week's count.
Burlingame Cases: 3,880 - Up by 13 so flat week over week. Cases in the last 30 days are down to 71.
Posted by: Joe | March 26, 2022 at 08:33 AM
Let's call this "booster week" as the CDC sent forth the missive about the next round of booster approvals--that would be jab #4 if you are on the Pfizer or Moderna track and already had one booster. The County was pretty quiet Covid-wise this week:
Total Cases: 121,566 - Up 701 in the County for the week -- down about 15% last week's count.
Burlingame Cases: 3,913 - Up by 33 over week, so almost triple but still a small number, but causing the number of cases in the last 30 days to tick up to 76.
Posted by: Joe | April 02, 2022 at 01:15 PM
As reports of the BA.2 subvariant jumping in the Northeast, we continue to see basically flat spread here in the County:
Total Cases: 122,400 - Up 834 in the County for the week -- up about 20% from last week's increase
Burlingame Cases: 3,945 - Up by 32 over last week, flat from last week's increase but causing the number of cases in the last 30 days to tick up again to 87.
Posted by: Joe | April 09, 2022 at 12:47 PM