Alameda County Health Services Agency officials confirmed the end to the county-level state of emergency on Feb. 28, the same day that Gavin Newsom ended the state's emergency declaration.
"While COVID-19 continues to circulate in our communities, declarations of local health emergencies are intended to be temporary," county health officials said in the Feb. 28 announcement. "We now know more about the virus that causes COVID-19 and how to protect ourselves and each other than we did in March 2020, and increased immunity in the local population and widely available treatments have rendered the disease considerably less threatening to public health."
State and local officials pointed to the relatively swift response to the pandemic in California -- which had the lowest death rate from the COVID-19 virus among other large states -- and in the Bay Area and Alameda County in particular.
In the latest data as of March 7, Alameda County reported 93.9% of residents had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and that 86.6% were fully vaccinated. There were 113 confirmed COVID-related hospitalizations countywide as of March 3, down from a peak of 450 hospitalizations last January.
But despite the relatively optimistic outlook locally compared to other parts of the state and country, and the relief of seeing an end in sight to the nearly three years of life under COVID-19, the county didn't make it out unscathed.
Just under 2,200 people in Alameda County were confirmed to have died with COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, according to county data, with 380,482 confirmed cumulative cases overall recorded by the county.
Despite the end of the state and county emergency declarations, county health officials emphasized that the virus has not disappeared and encouraged continuing to adhere to some basic preventative measures, such as keeping up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters, staying home if testing positive for the virus, testing, and making a plan for treatment if sick with the virus.
