By the numbers: Who has COVID in Plumas?
By Debra Moore
As the Plumas County case count for confirmed coronavirus cases continues to grow, questions are emerging: Where are people contracting it? Who is contracting it?
Those questions were posed to the Plumas County Public Health Agency this morning, Nov. 30.
“Your questions regarding how the virus is spreading in our county is a frequently asked question. Specifically people would like to know if certain types of businesses are contributing to the spread,” said Lori Beatley, spokeswoman for the agency. “Since we currently have community spread it has become more difficult to determine with a high rate of probability of how individuals are contracting COVID-19. Obviously gatherings and travel still continue to be a significant means of spread throughout our county.”
She said that two clusters have been related to restaurants/bars, “however, it has not been determined if the nexus of the spread of COVID was directly related to those businesses. All the businesses that public health has contacted in relation to contact tracing investigations have been very cooperative.”
Additionally, questions have arisen about the number of positive cases associated with Feather River College. To date, to the best of our knowledge, seven students and one part-time faculty have contracted the virus. Students are currently off campus through the holidays and the college is scheduled to offer distance learning for the spring semester.
To date, there have been 215 cases identified in Plumas County, with nine hospitalizations (one current) and no deaths.
Demographic information pertaining to individuals who test positive is protected by privacy laws, but there is some general info that can be shared, and that is published on the California Department of Public Health’s website. It’s interesting to note that case rates are spread relatively evenly among age groups in Plumas County. Here is a sampling of the demographics:
Positive cases according to gender:
Male: 41.3 percent
Female: 58.7 percent
Positive cases according to race:
White: 82.6 percent
Hispanic: 10.9 percent
Other: 6.5 percent
Positive cases according to age:
Under 17: 10.88 percent
18-24: 12.97 percent
25-34: 15.17 percent
35-44: 15.77 percent
45-54: 14.27 percent
55-64: 12.97 percent
65-74: 11.98 percent
75-plus: 5.99 percent
Positive cases according to exposure (there can be some overlap in the numbers):
contact with other cases: 48 percent
household: 27.6 percent
large gathering: 25 percent
travel: 18.4 percent
health care: 13.8 percent
unknown: 11.8 percent
work contact: 9.2 percent
You can access the dashboard at this link: https://infogram.com/111020-plumas-county-covid-19-1hke608o5zjy145?live
