On Sunday, local community clinic staff conducted rapid antigen testing in the Guerneville Plaza, focusing on services workers, including hotel and restaurant staff. Dr. Jason Cunningham, CEO of West County Health Centers, said that of 78 tests performed, 9 turned up positive.
Cunningham said that level of test positivity, about 11%, would indicate “widespread” transmission, although he cautioned drawing broad conclusions about the results of a single day of testing.
“But I think that’s consistent with what we’re hearing, that there’s widespread COVID in the community,” Cunningham said.
“It’s a great example of doing something tangible for one’s neighbor,” said Dr. Jason Cunningham, chief of West County Health Centers. The nonprofit recently received $50,000 for its vaccination efforts from the Dawn Redwood Trust, a charitable foundation that gets most of its dollars from members of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco, host of the Bohemian Grove campout.
John Balletto, president of Balletto Vineyards and Winery west of Santa Rosa, said all 90 of his workers have been vaccinated through the program with local health clinics. The company took workers to vaccination sites run by the West County Health Centers at schools in Guerneville and Sebastopol. Around 60 of his employees are seasonal guest workers from Mexico who live together in housing provided by the winery.
Any significant effort to bring the vaccine to disadvantaged populations is now being hampered by the sluggish allotment of doses coming into the county. That means most vials are currently being reserved for second doses, making it hard for vaccinators to expand their campaign to groups that haven’t already been addressed.
“Ken (Tasseff) is saying we’re making up that gap by 1% a day,” said Jason Cunningham, CEO of West County Health Centers. “But it’s stalled. We only have two vaccination clinics next week.”
Cunningham cautions against reading too deeply into the county’s ZIP code data, arguing there are significant lags in updating the information, which comes from the California Immunization Registry. Tasseff said the county vaccine dashboard should be an accurate reflection, since the data set is updated daily.
There are other anomalies in the ZIP code chart that go beyond class inequities. For example, the lowest vaccination rate in Sonoma County can be found in 94515, the hilly area near Calistoga at the eastern fringe of the county. Only 13.4% of residents there have gotten a dose. Annapolis is second lowest at 20.9%. Most chalk up those poor rates to remoteness.
