3 more Merced County COVID-19 deaths reported. Total cases down due to double counts
The Merced County Department of Public Health on Tuesday confirmed the deaths of three more area residents due to the novel coronavirus.
Tuesday’s fatalities brought the number of deaths reported since the pandemic’s start to 140.
The three most recent deaths were all men with underlying health conditions, according to County Public Health. One was between age 35-49, another between 50-64-years old and the third was age 65 or older.
Tuesday also brought with it 19 new laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to County Public Health.
Despite the new cases, the county’s total case load actually fell on Tuesday on account of County Public Health making routine adjustments to cases that were inadvertently double counted.
With the adjustment, the total number of COVID-19 infections since the first case was confirmed locally fell by 17 and now tallies 8,803.
Of the total caseload, 409 infections are presumed to be currently active. The number of active cases is an estimate based off of the total number of laboratory confirmed infections over the last two weeks.
Cases presumed active are down from 462 on Monday.
Active hospitalizations of Merced County residents due to severe COVID-19 cases also fell on Tuesday to 54. Of those, nine patients are being cared for locally, while the rest are hospitalized at facilities outside the county.
Although active hospitalizations fell, the total number of Merced County coronavirus patients ever hospitalized during the pandemic increased by five to 686.
Also on the decline Tuesday was the local list of active COVID-19 outbreaks. Franciscan, a skilled nursing facility, was cleared from active outbreak status. This means no new cases have been linked to the workplace for two weeks.
With Franciscan was struck from the active outbreak list, a total of 10 facilities are still experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks.
Of the 52,875 Merced County residents tested for COVID-19 since the pandemic’s start, 16.75% have returned positive as of Tuesday.
