While COVID-19 cases in Santa Clara County have trended down over the summer, the county's top health official said this week that the level of virus circulating locally is likely higher than the county's case count.
Health Officer and Public Health Director Dr. Sara Cody said Tuesday that the number of cases locally has decoupled since May from the amount of virus detected in the county's main sewershed in San Jose, which captures sewer water -- and by extension, COVID virus particles -- from more than 75 percent of the county's population.
"There's still a significant amount of virus circulating and therefore our risk of exposure still remains elevated," she said. COVID-related deaths during the most recent wave of cases tied to subvariant strains of the omicron variant remained far below the peaks of previous surges, which reached levels of 50 deaths per day or more.The relatively flat death rate, Cody suggested, is due to the county's high vaccination rate and, among unvaccinated residents, immunity from previous infection.
"The good news ... is that we're not seeing these big surges in people dying of COVID, and in large part I think that's due to widespread vaccination and boosters," she said."Pretty much the whole population has some immunity of one kind or another."