Coronavirus in rural America (Part LXXXI): Update from across California

Here are just a few coronavirus stories out of California in recent weeks.  In fact, one story is nearly two months old and reporting on events from mid-April--four months ago.  The common theme is places in California considered rural by some measure, with a big focus on the vulnerability of agricultural communities, mostly LatinX, in the Golden State.  

First, out of Mono County, population 14,202, which I've written about several times in recent months, is this headline from the Los Angeles Times, "Coronavirus surge linked to restaurants in Mammoth Lakes lands county on state watchlist.  Prior posts featuring Mono County are here and here, posts X and IV of this series on coronavirus in rural America, so back in March and April.  Both of those posts also concern the challenge of non-residents or seasonal residents bringing the virus into this remote nonmetro county in the eastern Sierra region of California. 

Second, out of Imperial County, population 174,528, a coronavirus hotspot.  This story by Gustavo Solis was published in the San Diego Union Tribune in mid June, and the headline is "Imperial County has highest rate of COVID-19 cases in the state; it wants to reopen anyway."  Here's an excerpt that describes a scene from two months earlier, at Easter:

Inside the hospital, roughly 50 percent of all in-patients have COVID-19. The intensive care unit on the second floor has been unofficially renamed the COVID wing.

More than 200 COVID-19 patients have been transferred out of Imperial County, a rural community bordered by Arizona and Mexico that has the highest per capita rate of COVID-19 cases in California.

This is interesting because news of the outbreak in Imperial County was much later emerging into the California media.   An Associated Press story out of Imperial County today is here; its focus is an inspiring Vietnamese-American physician working in Calexico.  Prior blog posts mentioning Imperial County in relation to coronavirus are here, here and here.  

Here's a story by Melody Gutierrez, dateline Sacramento, about the state's response to the coronavirus outbreak in the Central Valley.  The Valley, which includes Sacramento, is rural (at least in the agricultural sense) in the popular imaginary, albeit rarely by the Census Bureau definition.  Here's an excerpt from the story:

Newsom said the targeted approach on eight counties — San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare, and Kern counties — comes as the state is seeing widening disparities in deaths and infections of Latinos statewide. Those increases are particularly felt in the Central Valley, where Latinos make up a higher percentage of residents.

The strike teams will be deployed later this week.

“This disease continues to grow in the state of California, it continues to spread, but not evenly,” Newsom said Monday while speaking at Diamond Nuts in Stockton. “It is disproportionately impacting certain communities and certain parts of the state.”

And here's a story by Anita Chabria for the Los Angeles Times out of French Camp, California, population 3,376, in metropolitan San Joaquin County.  The headline speaks volumes:  "This county knew coronavirus could ravage its farmworkers. Why didn’t officials stop it?"  

Here's a related Los Angeles Times story from July 29 about California's agricultural workers, also characterized as "essential," which the state has struggled to protect.  Again, the headline is provocative, "California won’t conquer the coronavirus, and fully reopen, until it can protect essential workers." A related story by Jill Cowan of the New York Times is here.  And here's a story by Public Radio International out of Wasco, California about the need to protect agricultural workers from the predatory practices of employers--like charging $8 for a mask. 

A Capital Public Radio story about Downieville, the county seat of Sierra County, is here.  Its focus is on the ecotourism economy and how the coronavirus has decimated that "industry" in Gold Country towns like this one.  In many ways, it implicates the same issues as the Mono County story I featured at the top of this post:  What's a nonmetro county so reliant on ecotourism to do in a pandemic era?  A barely pre-pandemic post, from mid-February, out of Downieville is here.