The push to get San Joaquin County out of the most restrictive purple tier and into the red tier will require increasing the number of people vaccinated.

“The County classifies in the most restrictive Purple Tier because our case rate crept up past the goal set by the California Department of Public Health of 10 to 11.7 daily new cases per 100,000 as well as our health equity quartile positivity rate,” SJ County Public Health Director Dr. Maggie Park reported Tuesday. “We needed to have two measures in Orange to move to the Red Tier, but we are working extremely hard to get these numbers down again, primarily by way of widespread mobile vaccination units targeting San Joaquin’s priority populations as well as aggressive outreach efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19.”

As of Monday when it comes to the 60,638 targeted residents in Manteca 9,162 or 15.11 percent have been partially vaccinated and 9,793 or 16.15 percent have been vaccinated.  A vaccine for those 16 and under — not included in the targeted population — is not expected until later this year

There have been 2,800 or 16.72 percent of Lathrop’s targeted population of 16,745 who have been partially vaccinated and 2,355 or 14.06 percent fully vaccinated.

For Ripon’s targeted population of 12,338 there have been 1,820 or 14.75 percent partially vaccinated and 2,643 or 21.42 percent fully vaccinated.

To date there have been 1,244 deaths countywide including 99 in Manteca, 17 in Lathrop, and 15 in Ripon.

There are currently 1,379 active cases in Manteca. Not all who are currently classified with active positive tests are — or will become — sick.

Countywide the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has dropped 31.1 percent down to 44. Of the 695 beds in use at seven hospitals only 44 or 6 percent are COVID patients. Overall 29 percent of all hospital beds are empty.

There are 14 COVID patients in ICU beds. That represents 15 percent of the 95 ICU beds in use.

Fifty percent of residents aged 64 and over have been vaccinated, representing 41% of all vaccinations. Of the county’s 776,000 residents 77,248 are fully vaccinated.

Relief Across Downtown

(RAD) Gift Card Program

The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved the transfer of $1 million from the contingency provision budget and authorized agreements with the Downtown Modesto Partnership to implement the Relief Across Downtown (RAD) Gift Card Program. 
This program will assist San Joaquin County small businesses to recover faster from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic by encouraging spending at local businesses. The RAD gift card, previously established and managed by the City of Modesto and Stanislaus County, is a free, downloadable digital gift card which easy to use. The buyer fills it with funds up to $100 maximum. The RAD program matches whatever money was put on it (up to $100), and the participant can spend those funds at participating local small businesses within the County, such as restaurants, retailers, and personal care service providers, using its built-in QR code.

Implementing a RAD Card program would require an agreement with the Downtown Modesto Partnership, the owner of the RAD Card, to provide support. After reviewing certain legal and administrative details, the RAD program could be implemented in the next two weeks and the County would work with the local Chambers of Commerce to market the program.

 The county’s www.sjready.org, managed by the county’s Office of Emergency Services (OES), is a hub for all the COVID information the public needs to locate scheduled community vaccination events. 

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com