Will Merced County reopen faster under new state guidelines? Here’s when answers could come
One week after Merced County submitted its plan for reopening faster to the state, it has yet to be included in the list of 24 counties approved to move forward amid the coronavirus pandemic.
But Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Monday briefing updated criteria for advanced reopening. Will the new guidelines improve Merced County’s odds?
County Public Health will address the possibility at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, officials told the Sun-Star.
“The Board of Supervisors will discuss and take possible action regarding the next steps on the variance to Stage 2 of California’s roadmap to modify the stay-at-home order,” a Public Health news release said.
“The Board will also receive an update from Public Health and consider proclaiming a local economic emergency due to COVID-19.”
Newsom said the new criteria would enable 53 of the state’s 58 counties to more quickly reopen businesses without conflicting with the stay-at-home order he issued on March 19 to slow the spread of the outbreak. He singled out Los Angeles, Kings and Tulare among the five counties that would still face the more rigorous restrictions.
Counties will have to demonstrate that their hospitalization rates are stable and their rate of positive cases are low.
The new criteria represent a move away from the previous rules, which among other standards required that counties have no COVID-19 deaths for 14 days to reopen more quickly.
Now, counties that want to speed up their reopening can’t have more than a 5% increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations in the last seven days on average. For smaller counties where a single new hospitalized patient could cause a significant percentage jump, they will have to show that they had fewer than 20 COVID-19 patients hospitalized on any day in the past 14 days.
Counties would also need to show that they had no more than 25 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days, or a positive test rate of less than 8%. They will still need to demonstrate that they have adequate testing and contact tracing capacity to monitor spread of the virus in their communities and that hospitals and nursing homes can handle new outbreaks.
County Public Health officials last week reported that Merced County’s hospitalization rate is about 12.7%. The county had 56.5 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and a positive test rate of 6.2%.
Updated data for these numbers will be released at Tuesday’s meeting, Public Health officials said. This will provide a clearer picture of Merced County’s timeline at reopening under state guidelines.
While the county has not yet been approved to advance, some local officials frustrated with the slow pace have taken matters into their own hands. Atwater City Council Friday held a special meeting and unanimously passed a resolution making Atwater a sanctuary city for all businesses to reopen without fear of retribution from local law or code enforcement.
While those present at the special meeting largely supported the move, others have since criticized Atwater as well as Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke’s attitude of defiance toward the state.
“I WILL NOT be taking any enforcement action in this county for any of the COVID-19 ‘violations,’” Warnke recently wrote in a letter to the state. He made the letter public on the County Sheriff’s Facebook page.
Coronavirus in Merced County
Twenty additional Merced County residents tested positive for coronavirus over the weekend, pushing the tally to 220 infected individuals, according to County Public Health.
Active COVID-19 cases jumped from 67 Friday to 85 Monday. The total number of residents having ever been hospitalized due to coronavirus rose by one to 34.
Half of the weekend’s new cases are attributed to City of Merced residents. The city’s caseload rose from 69 to 79.
Los Banos has 47 total infections. Only areas with five or more positive cases are disclosed by County Public Health.
Fatalities traced to COVID-19 doubled in Merced County last week from three to six. No new deaths have been reported since Friday.
A total of 4,651 coronavirus tests have been performed in Merced County as of Monday through both the public and commercial lab systems. Of those, 4,162 are negative, 220 are positive and 267 are pending.
In California, there are 80,355 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3,241 deaths.
The Sacramento Bee contributed to this story.
