Good and bad news regarding COVID numbers in Nevada County…. only 26 new cases reported on the dashboard on Wednesday… but three more COVID related deaths are also on the books raising that number to 95….the increased deaths are a late indicator of the Delta Variant surge from late August and early September….. active cases in Nevada County are at 661 and 17 in county hospitals.

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For the past 10 months Nevada County Public Health Departents priority has been trying to get as many people vaccinated against COVID-19 as possible, but as the weather cools and the days become shorter, a concern about the flu is beginning to come to the forefront. County Public health officials will still be working on the relentless incrementalism of getting the unvaccinated vaccinated against COVID, but they want people to also get vaccinated against the flu. Last year’s flu season was diminished because mask wearing social distancing and safety protocols for COVID, but this year the flu will be back especially with less mask with the lessening of COVID restrictions.
Deputy County Medical Officer Dr. Glennah Trochet, says that it is possible to get both vaccines at the same time if so desired.

County Public health is not involved with providing booster vaccines, but local pharmacies and primary care facilities have access to all of the COVID doses as well as flu shots.
Public Health Director Jill Blake says the county is hosting its annual drive-thru flu clinic next week on October 5th, but that is for the flu vaccine only- NO COVD vaccines will be administered.

She also says, even though the exercise is designed to support mass vaccinations, it was ironic that the drive-thru format could not work for COVID.

It is also important to stress the drive thru clinic is not set up to vaccinate everybody in the county, it is limited to about 600 doses. Though it is a four hour window, because of the limited doses, the line is cutoff when the max number is reached.. and that can be in about half the time.

At previous drive-thru events people started lining up over an hour before the event even began, which causes traffic issue on Ridge Road and leads to frustrated residents when they are turned away because they did not realize there was a capacity limit.