Merced County coronavirus tests mostly negative at nursing facility, handful pending
Following a weekend report of a patient who tested positive for coronavirus at Anberry Transitional Care skilled nursing facility in Merced, health officials on Thursday said 134 of the 148 individuals tested as a result of the exposure are negative.
At this point, only 14 test results from the facility are pending, a County Public Health spokesperson told the Sun-Star.
The report of the infection at Anberry was one of three separate outbreaks reported over the weekend. Health officials are particularly concerned about the nursing facility because of the high number of patients who are generally older and higher risk.
In nearby Turlock, for example, 19 residents at the Turlock Nursing and Rehabilitation Center have died from COVID-19, and 101 residents and 55 employees have tested positive.
Also on Thursday, officials reported 10 new coronavirus infections in Merced County, which brings the number of total infections reported since March 22 to 320, according to County Public Health.
Active cases rose to 74 from 69 Wednesday, but still remained lower than recent weeks. The total number of hospitalizations remained stable as well at 40.
Seven people in Merced County have died due to COVID-19 related complications and 239 have recovered.
Five of the new COVID-19 infections are attributed to City of Merced residents. With 124 persons having been sick due to coronavirus, Merced is the community hit hardest in the county.
Los Banos is second, but claims less than half of Merced’s tally at 59 coronavirus cases. No new COVID-19 cases were reported there Thursday.
Atwater and Winton’s case tallies each went up by two to 29 and 22 Thursday, respectively. Livingston rose by one to 19 total infected residents.
A total of 7,217 coronavirus tests have been performed in Merced County as of Thursday. Of those, 6,791 are negative, 320 positive and 106 still pending. This includes testing through both the commercial and public health lab systems.
In California, since the beginning of the pandemic there have been 119,807 confirmed coronavirus cases and 4,422 deaths.
This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 6:53 PM.
