SANTA CRUZ — In keeping with trends from previous years, COVID-19 cases are rising alongside the summer season heat in Santa Cruz County. In fact, according to local health officials, the virus appears to be spiking even a little ahead of schedule. According to Santa Cruz County Health Officer Lisa Hernandez, local data indicates that “we are seeing a rise again and we’re projected to see that continue when we’re looking at the wastewater modeling in particular.
” “It seems like this might be a little earlier than what we saw last year,” she added. Though the early rise came as a surprise, the downstream impacts have not. Hernandez said the average number of patients in the county hospitalized with COVID is currently around five but has topped out at 10 in recent weeks.
These figures are concerning, according to Hernandez, although “not the worst we’ve seen, but definitely it’s trending up.” The number of COVID-related deaths across the county has also persisted, with a total of 20 since the beginning of the year. A spokesperson with the county’s public health division said information such as age, gender and location for the decadents wasn’t readily available.
“Every death is a concern and a loss to the community and to the family,” said Hernandez. “We’re not seeing alarming numbers of deaths like we had seen in the past and we’d see less if people got vaccinated. That’s really helpful.
” Hernandez said factors responsible for the recent.
