Merced County Public Health reports five deaths, 161 new coronavirus cases Tuesday

The Merced County Department of Public Health confirmed five new COVID-19 related deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total in the county to 51.

According to health officials, an additional four deaths reported on Friday have been re-classified as non-coronavirus cases.

Four of the five deaths released Tuesday were people age 65 or older, while the fifth person was between age 50-64. Four of the dead were men and one was a woman, all of whom had underlying health conditions.

A total of 161 new COVID-19 cases were reported, bringing the county’s laboratory confirmed cases total to 4,583.

The number of residents assumed to be actively sick, which means their case was confirmed in the last two weeks, rose from 1,728 Monday to 1,770 Tuesday.

According to public health data, there are currently 21 active outbreaks in the county.

State reporting issues complicating local numbers

According to the county, state officials have confirmed that issues with an electronic laboratory reporting system has led to a recent under-reporting of positive cases. Due to delays in state reporting, the health department said that there is a lag in positive case information that is being sent to California counties.

As a result of the information lag, positive case numbers and overall positive case percentages on the Merced County dashboard may be affected, according to the health department.

Merced County’s positive case percentage dipped slightly on Tuesday to 20%. The positive case percentage is the percentage of all residents screened for COVID-19 in the last seven days who test positive.

This means Merced County is still significantly higher than the California Department of Public Health’s target maximum of 8%.

According to health officials, there are currently 82 Merced County residents with COVID-19 severe enough to require hospitalization. Of those individuals, 51 are currently hospitalized in Merced County facilities, while others are being cared for outside the county. In total, 322 Merced County residents have been hospitalized since the pandemic began, according to public health.

According to current public health data, there has been a total of 520,775 confirmed cases and 9,506 recorded deaths in the state of California.

This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 7:18 PM.