COVID-19 cases are beginning to increase once again in a West Coast state up North. Even though the Omicron variant has been confirming in a nearby local county and there are really small amounts that have been detected in the area wastewater, there has been a recent spike in the numbers. It is more likely due to the recent holiday than Omicron, Sacramento’s top health official said Thursday.

COVID-19 – Cases are Up Due to Travel And Gathering Because of Thanksgiving

“We are, in fact, seeing an uptick in numbers, and also from anecdotal information from our community testing sites, we believe that this is due to people traveling or gathering during the Thanksgiving holiday,” Sacramento County health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said Thursday, two weeks after Thanksgiving.

Daily Case Rate

There is an increase from 9.9 to 13.7 per 100,000 residents since the holiday. The county’s daily case rate has gone up as a result. There is a 38% increase based on the local health office’s data board. Also, Sacramento’s test positivity rate is increasing by a smaller proportion, from 3.2% to 3.4% of samples returning positive. This information is according to California Department of Public Health data.

The recent increase it has been suggesting can be attributed to more tests being processing than pre-Thanksgiving. They support the state and local data. The cases are beginning to trend upward thus after the decline throughout most of November.

Incubation and Testing Timelines

Right after the holiday is the two-week mark. That is right around when the health officials did expect a spike in COVID-19 activity which did emerge. That was due to incubation and testing timelines.

“We hope people would like to take precautionary measures. In fact, we are trying to get the message out,” these would include getting vaccinated, limiting holiday travel and indoor masking, Kasirye said. “Moreover, it is hard to gauge just how much of an increase is expecting. Though, we did expect that there could be some.

“Moreover, we do feel that, because this time around we do have vaccinations available, that (the increase) is not as high as last year.” California’s statewide case rate did increase from about nine to 12 per 100,000 since Thanksgiving. Also, hospitalizations with the virus did, in fact, rise from about 3,050 to 3,400 patients, it is an 11% increase, in the past two weeks.