Local coronavirus cases are reflective of San Benito County’s demographics, Public Health Officer Dr. Marty Fenstersheib said at a special Board of Supervisors meeting on April 14. Out of 38 confirmed cases, he said 63% were Hispanic residents, 18% white and 8% Asian. As of April 14, there have been 39 confirmed COVID-19 cases since February, with four currently active cases, 33 recovered and two deaths.
According to the latest Census data, 60.6% of San Benito County’s population is Hispanic/Latinx, 33.5% is white and 3.6% is Asian.
Additionally, Fenstersheib said that 22 of the 38 confirmed cases involved residents who work outside the county, with 74% of them commuting to jobs in Santa Clara County. Nine county residents have been admitted to the hospital for COVID-19.
With 38 confirmed cases, San Benito County may not appear to be as heavily burdened by the pandemic as neighboring counties. However, Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital Emergency Department Director Dr. Michael Bogey said based on the rate of infection, the county is among the worst in the area.
“We only have 38 cases, sounds great,” Bogey said. “However, when you factor in we only have so many people in the county, we are actually worse than Santa Cruz and Monterey County in the sense of percentage-wise. So, it’s definitely affected us.”
Of the five counties in the region—San Benito, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, Merced and Fresno—San Benito has the second-largest rate of infection at 0.06%. Santa Clara has the highest rate at 0.09%. Data shows that:
- San Benito County has 38 cases among 62,808 residents as of April 13. (.o6%)
- Monterey County has 87 cases among 434,061 residents as of April 12. (.02%)
- Santa Cruz County has 91 cases among 273,213 residents as of April 14. (.03%)
- Santa Clara County has 1,666 cases among 1,927,852 residents as of April 13. (.086%)
- Merced County has 69 cases among 277,680 residents as of April 13. (.024%)
- Fresno County has 222 cases among 999,101 residents as of April 13. (.022%)
As the number of COVID-19 cases begins to level off, a process commonly referred to as flattening the curve, Bogey and Fenstersheib warned against easing the shelter-in-place order too soon.
“We know if we let up on this too soon, we are going to see a second wave, potentially,” Fenstersheib said. “We have actively looked for cases and investigated those, and looked for any contact and quarantine all of those people. We have some control over this right now.”
As San Benito County begins work on a regional strategy with other jurisdictions to ease restrictions without overwhelming the health system, Fenstersheib said the assumptions in making those plans include ensuring that Hazel Hawkins is prepared to handle any potential cases that arise; the county having enough personal protective equipment (PPE) and supplies; and availability of a faster method of testing.
“At least for the hospital, I think this is going to be around for a long time,” Bogey said. “I think we are going to be dealing with this for a very long time and we’ll be wearing the PPE and so we’ll need to make sure we have all that stuff for a very long time.”
BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is working around the clock during this time when accurate information is essential. It is expensive to produce local news and community support is what keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s news.
You must be logged in to post a comment.