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CHICO — It has been nearly three years since the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic and Butte County alone has seen its share of ups and downs.
January 2022 kicked off with record highs since the pandemic began seeing just short of a seven-day average of just short of 400 cases. The number of people hospitalized with the virus jumped as high as 101.
By March, however, the seven-day average went as low as seven people and it wasn’t until roughly the beginning of summer that numbers began to rise once again, though never reaching January’s numbers. In May-August, the county was seeing 3-17 new cases per day but that began to dwindle into fall and wouldn’t start creeping up again until December.
The highest number of new cases in a day for December was 14.
In total, Butte County saw 17,513 cases in 2022 as of Friday and 40,923 since March 14, 2020. According to Butte County Public Health, the CDC-calculated community transmission level for the county is considered high. Going into the end of the year, 44 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the virus has killed 472 Butte County residents. Around 131 died in 2022.
As of Friday, 118,639 Butte County residents have had their primary dose of COVID-19 vaccinations — roughly 52% of those who qualify.
Earlier in the year, Butte County Public Health announced its new dashboard through which residents can go to get data on the virus and its impact on the county. This includes averages, deaths, new cases and information on variants. The department also announced that it would be shifting its focus from individual cases to a more hands-on approach to incidents that may have spread the virus to larger groups such as during major events and gatherings.
The Butte County Board of Supervisors as well as the Chico and Oroville city councils called off local COVID-19 emergency ordinances that were put in place back in 2020. In the case of Chico, this meant two amendments and five executive orders, all of which came to a close at the start of December.
Meanwhile, at the state level, discussions continued as to whether or not vaccines should be required for school-age children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention opted to put out a recommendation for children to receive the vaccine, but California seems to have backed off from any mandate that would create a requirement around it.
California had a parallel trend to Butte County with January seeing the largest spike of the year. On Jan. 24, 2022, new state cases of the virus went as high as 215,830.
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