Covered California and the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) announced that from Oct. 1, 2013, to Feb. 28, 2014, under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 33,111 consumers in mostly rural Northern California counties enrolled in subsidized and non-subsidized Covered California health insurance plans.

The new total represents a 19 percent increase from the 27,853 enrollments recorded through Jan. 31. An additional 35,842 consumers have been determined likely eligible for Medi-Cal in these counties.

The open-enrollment period for health insurance plans in Covered California’s marketplace ends March 31. Enrollment in Medi-Cal is year round.

The Northern California counties of Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne and Yuba represent about 4 percent of the statewide enrollment.

The local total includes 29,971 consumers eligible for financial subsidies.

These counties encompass Covered California pricing region 1. For Medi-Cal, these 22 counties represent 3 percent of those deemed likely eligible for Medi-Cal coverage.

The impressive pace of enrollments in the region is due in part to enhanced aspects of Covered California’s customer service.

The agency has increased staff to answer consumer calls, added phone lines, improved its website efficiency, expanded its live Web chat function and upgraded its Spanish-language Web pages. DHCS is continuing its work with counties and Covered California to process the vast number of applications and quickly deliver health coverage to all who are eligible.

For the five-month period ending Feb. 28, 880,082 consumers enrolled in plans statewide. The total increased to 923,832 through March 9.

Covered California also announced on Monday that it had enrolled more than 1 million consumers as of March 14.