Yavapai County health officials discussed the new Delta variant and announced the closure of county buildings as cases increase at a virtual Town Hall meeting Aug. 2.

Yavapai County Building Closure

Yavapai County Board of Supervisors Chairman Craig Brown of district four announced that effec­tive Aug. 5, all county buildings will once again be closed to the public due to an increase in COVID- 19 cases.

“We want to make sure that our services are still available to the public, but we can’t take any more risks with the amount of employees that we see coming down with COVID-19, which has gone up dramatically over the last three weeks,” he said.

County services will continue to be offered via appointment only, masks will be required in all Yavapai County buildings and employees will be asked to get vacci­nated, though it won’t be required.

Increase in Cases and the Delta Variant

Yavapai County Community Health Services Director Leslie Horton said while the current number of COVID-19 cases are much lower than they were at this time last year, Yavapai County is starting to see an increase and has been averaging 53 cases per day for the past two weeks.

While, in a positive twist, the number of deaths has remained low, the past two weeks alone has seen the number of cases rise from 20,000 to 21,000.

What concerns them more is an increase in the number of patients hospitalized with COVID in recent weeks. As of the Town Hall event Aug. 2, Yavapai Regional Medical Center had 38 COVID patients, Verde Valley Medical Center had three and the VA had two. A week prior, Horton said hospitals were actually at full capacity.

“They’re not at the extent where they were last year around the holi­days when they had to cut back completely on electives and other nones­sential services, but they are probably going to have to make adjustments in the services offered if they continue to see this increase in COVID-19,” she said.

Not only that, but hospitals are now reporting that the average age of those hospital­ized has dropped down to a younger population. Previously, the majority of those sick enough to be hospitalized were over the age of 60. Now, most people admitted are between 40- to 60-years-old with an average age of 35, Horton said. And the health department is widely attributing this increase to a new strain of the COVID-19 virus: The Delta variant.

“Many people when they get COVID-19, espe­cially if they’re young and healthy, may not have severe symptoms. However, we are seeing people that are younger with the new variance of COVID that are getting sicker quicker and more severely,” Horton said.

The Delta variant is the fourth strain of COVID- 19 that has emerged since the pandemic began, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it may cause more severe cases than previous variants.

This variant is popping up in Yavapai County, Horton said, and multiple labs in the area are now testing for it specifi­cally. While there is no rapid test available for this strain, some positive COVID-19 tests are being sent to diagnostic labs, which are then tested for the Delta variant.

“We realize some of this is out of our hands as this is a new virus still, and as it mutates and we see these variants, there’s new things that we’re learning all the time and try to relay that information to you so that you can make the best choices based on your risk, your overall health and the resources that are available to you,” Horton said.

Health Department Recommendations

Officials are offering many of the same recom­mendations they’ve been pushing since the start of the pandemic: Washing hands, wearing masks, social distancing and staying home if you’re sick.

“I realize that most people were excited when masking kind of went away for a short while, but right now with the temperature of COVID and as it’s spreading so rapidly, it is important that people consider masking in indoor spaces whether they’re vaccinated or not,” Horton said. “We do need to slow down the spread and do our best to keep this community healthy and resilient. COVID is not gone yet.”

However, YC Epidemiologist Stephen Everett said while these recommendations will help slow the spread, the best protection against the virus is the vaccine.

On average, round 85% to 90% of hospitalized patients have been unvac­cinated. The 10% to 15% of vaccinated individuals who still got sick expe­rienced shorter recovery times and less severe symptoms. Those that are

unvaccinated represent 99% of deaths. However, the survival rate for those who are unvaccinated is still as high as 97.5%.

However, even those who have been vaccinated are recommended to follow certain protocols to protect themselves and others, including wearing a mask and staying home if they are experiencing symptoms. If they’ve been exposed to COVID- 19, the CDC recommends vaccinated individuals wear a mask, but isolation is not necessary.

“You could be conta­gious, but it’s highly unlikely. Your viral load tends to be a lot lower than if you’re showing symptoms, so you’d be much less contagious than you would if you were actually sick,” Everett said.

For those who have not been vaccinated, the recommendations are the same as they’ve always been: If exposed, quar­antine for 14 days, and if showing symptoms, stay home and get tested.

Back to School

On July 2, Gov. Doug Ducey rescinded 25 pandemic-related execu­tive orders, making it so that masks can no longer be required in schools and said schools must resume in-person teacher-led instruction.

With kids officially going back to school in recent weeks, many parents are concerned about allowing their children to be in such close proximity to others without a mask mandate or an approved vaccine for those under 12.

“We see a lot of people saying, ‘Well, we don’t really have to protect children because they tend to have mild or no symptoms,’” Everett said. “That is true, but that does not mean that they’re not contagious. So even though your child may not be showing any symptoms, but is positive, he or she can still give COVID-19 to someone else.”

Sally Slater, immuniza­tion nurse coordinator for YCCHS, said while right now there are no COVID- 19 vaccine options avail­able for children under the age of 12, Pfizer has applied to the FDA for the ability to offer their vaccine to kids as young as 2-years-old and hope to be approved in the next month or so.

In the meantime, Horton said masks are the best way to keep kids from getting COVID-19. While schools cannot mandate the wearing of masks due to Ducey’s orders, the health department is strongly recommending that parents choose to have their children wear them.

“It is a recommenda­tion from the health department that if people are sending their kids to school that they consider having those kids wear a mask. We do want to slow down the spread of COVID-19 and make sure that people can send their kids to school,” she said. “We are seeing some of the schools that have opened so far without masking, they are having a high rate of infection among students.”

Horton said the health department will be working closely with schools this year to help them slow the spread through social distancing, hand washing, quarantine procedures and mask recommendations.

Next Steps

The health department has plans to set up pop-up vaccine events at places like schools, pharmacies and other locations in the public eye.

“I know that a lot of people have decided that COVID-19 should be a thing of the past or that it’s not as severe as once thought,” Horton said. “But we are still seeing this spread rapidly. We’re still seeing that people are being hospitalized, especially those unvac­cinated. So, the more you can do to help us, the better our community will be, the less restric­tion that will have to be employed over time. We do hope to see an overall reduction in the number of cases.”