Merced County officials ask for public’s help keeping COVID-19 cases low over Labor Day
Merced County Department of Public Health on Thursday confirmed the death of one resident due to the novel coronavirus. The number of coronavirus-related fatalities is now 120 in Merced County.
The deceased resident was a 50-64-year-old female, according to County Public Health. It is unknown whether the individual had underlying health conditions.
Thursday also brought the addition of 80 new laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases to Merced County’s running total, according to County Public Health. The county’s caseload since the start of the pandemic tallies 8,202.
The new infections on Thursday mark the highest daily case count since Aug. 24. Still, the additional cases continued with the recent shift of daily cases remaining below the 100 threshold.
With new infections consistently down for more than a week, the Merced County Department of Public Health in a Thursday news release urged residents to continue strict safety precautions over the Labor Day weekend.
“Though Merced County continues to have one of the highest rates of infection in the state, we’ve been doing better and our numbers are trending in the right direction,” said said Dr. Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp, Merced County’s director of public health, in the release. “
“It would be a shame to undo weeks of work over one holiday weekend.”
Data gathered following past holiday weekends show notable spikes of COVID-19 cases due to large groups congregating, the release said. Lax physical distancing and the absence of face coverings also lends to the spikes.
Two weeks after Father’s Day, the county experienced a 129% increase in cases, according to County Public Health data. Independence Day upped cases by 79% after two weeks.
To avoid another surge, residents this weekend should avoid mass gatherings, wear masks and exercise good hand hygiene, the release said.
If not, the county could be set back weeks from progressing through the state’s economic reopening plan.
More on local COVID-19 data
The City of Merced, which has consistently carried the brunt of all known COVID-19 cases in the county, breached 3,000 total infections on Thursday.
The City of Atwater claims the next most at 1,218.
Merced County’s list of active COVID-19 outbreaks rose by one location to 19 on Thursday. Franciscan, a skilled nursing facility, was added to the list again after previously being removed.
Outbreaks are defined as three or more unrelated, laboratory confirmed coronavirus cases linked to a workplace facility within 14 days. Just one positive case constitutes an outbreak at a skilled nursing facility.
Outbreaks are removed from the list when there are no new cases at the facility for two weeks.
Active hospitalizations or Merced County residents rose to 93 on Thursday. The total amount of hospitalizations since the pandemic began increased from 592 to 602.
Of the current hospitalizations, a total of 26 residents are being looked after at facilities within the county while the other are elsewhere.
The number of individuals currently hospitalized on account of severe COVID-19 cases has swung up and down in recent days between the high 80-90s.
Other local coronavirus metrics, however, have continued to fall.
For instance, COVID-19 infections presumed active decreased on Thursday from 893 to 868. The data point shows significant improvement from mid August, when active cases had reached toward the 3,000 threshold.
The active case county is an estimate based on the number of known COVID-19 cases confirmed within the last two weeks. While County Public Health used to actively manage individual cases during the beginning of the pandemic, the number eventually surged past a manageable volume.
The county’s positive case percentage also continued to show improvement on Thursday as it fell, slightly, to 8.5%. Case positivity points to the amount of coronavirus tests during the last week that return positive.
In addition to other state-defined criteria, dropping below the 8% mark is an essential milestone for counties to reopen more parts of their local economy under the statewide opening plan that went into effect on Monday.
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 5:50 PM.
