Dr. Hoffman talks potential move back to purple tier, Public Health’s vaccination plan

HUMBOLDT COUNTY, Calif. (KIEM) — Humboldt County Health Officer Dr. Ian Hoffman provided a update on local conditions surrounding covid-19 to the board of supervisors. Dr. Hoffman is warning that the county is teetering on the edge of moving back in to the purple tier.

Public Health was surprised last week when the state reassigned Humboldt County to the red tier for Covid-19 restrictions. According to Dr. Hoffman, local data suggests differently with the current case rate at 16.3 and the positivity rate at 5.2%. He says the community should be prepared to shift back to the purple tier.

“If those numbers hold for the coming week, next Tuesday we will be going back into the purple tier,” Hoffman says.

Humboldt is the only county in the state that is in the red tier and not under a regional stay at home order. Hoffman encourages the community to act as if we are still under stricter restrictions.

“For one, I think the level of virus in our community dictates that, and number two, I think it’s likely that we’ll go back into the purple tier,” Hoffman adds.

Another topic of discussion was vaccines and how the focus remains on phase 1A of distribution. 1,950 second doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived this week. Planning for phase 1B and much wider distribution is underway. Public Health is also opening its own mass vaccination clinic Wednesday that will run 3 days a week and hopes to vaccinate as many as 750 people each week.

“We feel that the vaccination process in Humboldt county is going very well. We’re ahead of our counterparts in the rest of the state and certainly based on what I’m seeing in news reports, the rest of the country,” Hoffman says.

Hoffman adds that the county remaining in the red tier, despite the data qualifying us for the purple tier, is because the state requires 2 weeks in a tier level before reassignment.