New California plan puts Merced County under most-limited coronavirus reopening
For the fifth day in a row this week, the Merced County Department of Public Health on Friday confirmed the death of a resident due to the novel coronavirus.
Along with the new fatality, Merced County on Friday was placed into the most limited reopening category under the new reopening system announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Known as “Blueprint for a Safer Economy,” the color-coded reopening plan categorizes counties into four tiers of risk. They include widespread (purple), substantial (red), moderate (orange) and minimal (yellow).
County categorization will be updated each Tuesday. Counties must stay in their current tier for at least three weeks before shifting down to a less stringent one, and are only allowed to move lower if local COVID-19 data improves for at least two weeks.
Counties that fail metrics for two weeks will be moved to the next highest risk tier.
The system is based on counties’ positivity rate and the number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents – data points that Merced County has consistently fallen short of complying with.
Merced, and most California counties, fell into the most severe category of widespread risk on account of having spent prolonged time on the state’s watch list for regions with concerning COVID-19 metrics
These counties have the most stringent reopening limitations. Restaurants are only permitted to open for outdoor seating, while counties in the next most limited category are able to open restaurants indoors at 25% capacity.
Schools cannot open for in-person class unless the county reaches the red category and remains there for two weeks. Counties like Merced that are labeled as having widespread risk may still apply for elementary school reopening waivers.
However, hair salons and barbershops statewide can now open indoors with precautions – even in purple high-risk counties.
County deaths rise, but some local numbers improving
Nine COVID-19-related fatalities have been reported in Merced County since Monday. The total death count since the pandemic’s start is 115.
The most recently deceased resident was a male, at least age 65. It is unknown whether he had underlying health conditions, according to County Public Health.
Current active COVID-19 outbreaks remained at 21 total, with at least 358 individuals connected to the largest county-wide outbreak at the Foster Farms chicken plant in Livingston.
Eight employees have died due to the outbreak.
The state of the Livingston plant remained in question on Friday. Following orders to shut down, the facility continued to operate, according to a Friday statement by Foster Farms.
A 48-hour stay to the shutdown was ordered by county officials on Thursday, giving the company more time to cease operations. But Foster Farms’ statement did not reference any intention of shutting the plant down.
Active hospitalizations on Friday were down by three patients to 82. Eighteen Merced County residents are hospitalized locally, while the bulk of patients are being cared for at outside facilities.
Also on Friday, 76 new laboratory-confirmed coronavirus cases were reported by County Public Health. The additional COVID-19 infections raised the county’s total caseload to 7,890 since the first infection was confirmed.
Improving metrics
Friday’s new cases closed out the week with daily infection counts remaining relatively low compared to recent weeks in Merced County.
Since Monday, most new daily case tallies have numbered less than 100, with the exception of Tuesday’s 103. During preceding weeks, additional daily infections counted in the hundreds.
Due to the diminishing quantity of new known infections, the number of cases presumed active again notably fell. Active cases, meaning they were laboratory confirmed within the last two weeks, decreased from 1,523 on Thursday to 1,113 Friday.
The comparatively lower influx of COVID-19 infections is also reflected in the county’s falling positivity rate. Case positivity refers to the percent of coronavirus tests over the last week that return positive.
The rate fell to 10.6% on Friday from 11.5% Thursday, meaning Merced County is creeping toward the California Department of Public Health’s maximum threshold of 8%.
The Sacramento Bee’s Sophia Bollag contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 5:48 PM.
