Merced County coronavirus infections surge with four more deaths, 12 in the last week
Four more Merced County residents lost their lives after contracting the novel coronavirus, County Public Health reported Thursday.
Two of the deceased residents were female and two were male. One was between 50-64-years-old and three were 65 or older.
Three of the individuals had underlying health conditions prior to their death. The health status of the fourth deceased resident is unknown at this time, according to County Public Health.
Total local fatalities stood at 39 late Thursday. Twelve of those deaths have been reported within the last week.
Laboratory confirmed COVID-19 infections breached 4,000 on Thursday, with 159 new cases, raising Merced County’s caseload since the pandemic began to 4,065.
Known infections rose by 942 cases since last Thursday, compared to 810 the prior week and 520 the week before that.
While the influx in cases is partly due to increased local testing capacity, County Public Health officials have stressed that other metrics point to transmission increasing as well.
Merced County has yet to meet the state’s recommendation of at least 150 tests performed daily per 100,000 residents. The county is inching closer but still falls short at about 139 daily tests per 100,000 residents.
Individuals assumed to be actively ill, meaning their positive COVID-19 test result was confirmed within the last two weeks, increased to 1,752 Thursday.
The active case count is an estimate only due to the overwhelming number of new cases preventing County Public Health officials from actively managing each case.
Coronavirus cases whose exposure type is still under investigation also rose Thursday to 2,039. Exposure types include cases contracted from an identified source within the county, cases acquired in the county from an unknown source, residents exposed to the virus outside of the county, and cases transmitted in a healthcare setting.
Residents currently sick enough to require hospital care rose to 80. Of those, 50 individuals are being looked after at facilities in the county.
The only decreasing number Thursday as far as data reported by County Public Health was the positive case percentage over the last seven days, which dropped down to 19.3% from 20.4% Wednesday.
The positive case percentage shows the portion of all individuals screened for COVID-19 during the last week whose results return positive.
The California Department of Public Health set an ideal maximum of 8% for counties.
The state is currently monitoring 38 California counties due to concerning COVID-19 data.
This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 5:54 PM.
