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Coronavirus Update: Santa Clara County COVID-19 Cases Approach 1,000; 32 Deaths Confirmed

SAN JOSE (CBS SF) -- Health officials in Santa Clara County on Wednesday confirmed a total of 66 new coronavirus cases in the county, raising the total number of cases to 956.

The two new COVID-19 deaths from the virus confirmed on Wednesday raised the total number of deaths in Santa Clara County to 32. The numbers were reflected on the county's coronavirus data dashboard webpage that is providing the latest figures from the Santa Clara County Department of Health.

COMPLETE COVERAGE: CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Additionally, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office announced Wednesday that 11 of its employees have now tested positive for coronavirus.

Of the 11 employees, eight were deputies assigned to the sheriff's Custody Bureau, while one was a deputy assigned to a patrol division. A custody support assistant at the county's Main Jail in San Jose and a sheriff's records technician were the other two positive cases.

One of the deputies has since recovered and is back to work, while the others are self-quarantining at home, according to the sheriff's office.

An inmate at the Main Jail who had previously tested positive last month for COVID-19 has since recovered and was moved back to his normal housing unit. Sheriff's officials said that as of Wednesday, they had no known inmates with the virus.

While the county has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic, on Tuesday Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody offered some words of hope to local residents.

Cody said she was seeing evidence that social distancing was beginning to work.

To help that along, county officials announced tough new shelter-in-place standards on Tuesday and joined other Bay Area counties in extending the current lockdown order until May 3rd.

"If you look at the dashboard (of the county's cases) ... you'll notice that the number of cases is bouncing around a lot," she said. "Partially, that has to do with what's happening and partially is due to the way cases come in."

"What I can tell you though once we account for all those variables -- maybe in the last day or two -- we are seeing a little bit of slowing," she added. "I say that very, very cautiously. It's really, really early and as [county health executive] Dr. [Jeffrey] Smith mentioned it's going to take us more time to see the impact of social distancing."

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