More coronavirus contact tracers, testing coming to Merced County. New fatality reported
.JPG "Ivana Barajas, a phlebotomist with Integrity Health, collects a sample from a patient at a COVID-19 testing site located at the Merced County Fairgrounds in Merced, Calif., on Monday, May 4, 2020.")
It’s been over a month since the June 9 Merced County Board of Supervisors meeting where County Public Health last publicly presented a comprehensive report about the state of coronavirus locally.
Then, the county was preparing to reopen more sectors of its economy, like wineries, bars, gyms, zoos and museums. New daily COVID-19 case records were being set, but in the low 20s, in terms of numbers of positive cases.
County Public Health’s Tuesday update highlighted how quickly the pandemic escalated in a month.
Local businesses and indoor church services once permitted to reopen were ordered shut by Gov. Gavin Newsom Monday. Merced County is still setting new daily case count records, but now in the 100-plus range. At 16.7% over the last seven days, the rate of COVID-19 tests coming back positive in Merced County is double the state’s ideal maximum of 8%.
“We’re seeing an explosion in the amount of cases,” said County Public Health Director Dr. Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp at the meeting, noting that more than half of all local infections have been within the last month.
At the time of the June 9 Supervisors meeting, there were 372 total infections and 107 active cases. As of Monday, total infections increased by 460% and active cases by 956%, according to County Public Health data. Active hospitalizations also increased by 517% and deaths by 71%.
Tuesday, the 13th fatality due to COVID-19 was reported in Merced County. The resident was a man between the age 50 to 64, according to a County Public Health news release. It is not yet known whether he had underlying health conditions.
Known local infections leaped by 101 cases to 2,183 total and cases presumed active hit 1,146.
For the first time in recent days, the number of current hospitalizations fell. At 32, five less people are actively hospitalized Tuesday.
Help on the way
The influx in infections has overwhelmed County Public Health to the point where officials are no longer actively monitoring each case. The number of active COVID-19 cases is an estimate based on infections confirmed within the last 14 days.
Contact tracing, which identifies the chain of coronavirus transmission after an individual tests positive, is strained locally due to the mounting quantity of cases and the scaling back of the county’s coronavirus response.
The Board of Supervisors Tuesday unanimously voted to create an extra help contact tracer-investigator position, immediately setting in motion a hiring process set to bring on 20 individuals to assist in the case backlog.
“The timing couldn’t be better with the (coronavirus) spread,” said David Mirrione, assistant CEO and director of Worknet Merced County.
The new position is made possible with a $400,000 grant secured through the California Employment Development Department. The grant uses federal dollars to fund the position for six months. Mirrione said the county applied months ago, and the grant came through in time to fill a significant community need.
Those eligible for the position must show they are receiving unemployment, have exhausted unemployment or have been impacted by the pandemic.
“At this point, nearly everyone is impacted by COVID-19 from an eligibility standpoint,” Mirrione said.
Under County Public Health’s supervision, those hired will be paid $25 an hour. Duties include coordinating contact tracing, contacting individuals exposed to the virus, recommending testing, explaining quarantine and isolation and more. Bilingual applicants in Spanish, Hmong and Punjabi are preferred.
Another persisting issue is that despite some improvements, Merced County still falls short of the state’s minimum daily testing capacity of 150 tests per 100,000 residents.
With the hope of finally meeting this benchmark, officials announced Tuesday that a new COVID-19 testing site is slated to begin operating Monday at the Los Banos Fairgrounds.
The testing site is a mobile Verily RV intended to serve rural regions identified as testing deserts. The RV will be at the fairgrounds Monday and Tuesday, and travel to other counties around the region on other days.
Up to about 250 self-swab tests can be completed per day. Patients can be seen by appointment or through walk ins.
A step back
While the increased testing capacity is good news for Merced County, test result turnaround time has worsened significantly, said Dr. Kristynn Sullivan, county supervising epidemiologist and operations chief.
About two days for results was once the norm, but now results are taking seven to eight days on average and 13-14 days in some cases.
Plus, the surge in the number and severity of cases put Merced County on a state watch list recently, leading to the state mandated closures intended to curb the virus’s spread. The only threshold Merced County has consistently met is ventilator capacity. While 89% of ventilators are available, all other state parameters are unmet.
Over 30 counties statewide are now on the list due to elevated disease transmission, increasing hospitalization and limited hospital capacity. Previously, the counties had 21 days to get their data back under minimum California Department of Public Health benchmarks.
Nanyonjo-Kemp said that timeline has since been scrapped, meaning counties are under obligatory restrictions until local data improves.
The second wave of closures has effectively reverted Merced County from Stage 3 of the governor’s reopening plan to Stage 2, Nanyonjo-Kemp said. The plan has four stages.
A state strike team is enforcing those business closures. The team consists of officials from the California Highway Patrol, Alcohol Beverage Control, the Department of Consumer Affairs and others.
Nanyonjo-Kemp said Merced County was advised that the team is paying attention to local media for signs of noncompliance.
“There’s a lot being asked for, but the ask if for a shortened amount of time so we get beyond where we are right now,” she said. “We don’t want this prolonged misery.”
County Public Health officials again urged the public to prevent the virus’s spread by wearing a face mask, washing their hands, social distancing and avoiding large gatherings with other households. The preventative measure deter COVID-19 transmission through droplets expelled in the air from both sick individuals and asymptomatic carriers.
“COVID-19 we have found is just very easy to catch . . . and that’s why the simplest measures have proved to be the most effective in the absence of a vaccine,” Nanyonjo-Kemp said.
This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 4:39 PM.
