Merced County nearing 1,000 total coronavirus cases. Active cases outpace recoveries
The Merced County Department of Public Health’s coronavirus update came closed to quadruple digits Monday, as the county’s total reached 979 infections reported since the first case reported March 22.
This marks and increase of more than 300 new cases since a week ago. Additionally, recoveries continued to remain stagnant at 365, while the number of active cases rose from 448 to 603. Recoveries haven’t budged since June 23.
Eleven Merced County residents have died from complications related to the virus.
The City of Merced claims the bulk of local cases with 433 total — up significantly from 347 Friday. Atwater also saw an substantial uptick from 111 to 134 during the same period. Los Banos rose from 103 to 115.
All other affected Merced County communities clock less than 70 COVID-19 cases each.
Total hospitalizations since the pandemic’s start climbed Monday to 94 from 82, and the overall positive case rate rose to 7.28%. These rising metrics both contributed to Merced being placed on the state’s list of counties flagged for concerning coronavirus demographics.
Merced County was marked as having elevated levels of disease transmission, increasing hospitalizations and limited hospital capacity.
A county is labeled as having increased disease transmission when more than 100 residents per 100,000 test positive for COVID-19 during a 14 day period. Merced County hit 114.8 residents per 100,000 population. The testing positivity rate also rose to 9.8% during a seven day average, breaching the state’s 8% threshold.
Plus, Merced County dropped below the state’s minimum 20% ICU bed capacity to 16.7%.
Eighteen other counties have made the state’s list and are under the watch so far.
The 19 counties on the list are in contact with state officials while taking steps to curtail COVID-19 locally. These include another possible roll out of business limitations or more general stay-at-home precautions. If a county makes little or no progress, the state may step in.
Elsewhere in the Valley
Fresno County reported another 337 positive cases of the coronavirus on Monday, bringing the total to 4,811 cases since the pandemic began. The new cases are the latest Fresno County has reported since Saturday. No new deaths related to the virus were added Monday to the 72 tallied since March.
Stanislaus County reported 2,165 infections since the pandemic’s start. There have been 42 deaths and 1,634 recoveries.
Tulare County officials said they have seen 124 deaths through Monday, which was two more than on Friday. The county added 167 positive cases to the running list, which has now reached 3,872 cases.
Madera County tallied 73 cases and no new deaths on Monday compared to Friday, which makes for a total of 488 positive cases and five deaths, respectively.
Mariposa County continues to have low numbers with 25 positive cases and a single death through Monday. That’s two more positive cases and no new deaths since Friday.
This story was originally published June 29, 2020 at 5:57 PM.
