Merced County reports one COVID-19 death over weekend. Overall cases approaching 9,000
An additional death of a Merced County resident due to the novel coronavirus was confirmed by the Merced County Department of Public Health on Monday.
The individual was a female, age 65 or older, with underlying health conditions prior to her death, according to County Public Health.
The new fatality brought the total number of local COVID-19-caused deaths to 143 since the beginning of the pandemic. The deceased individual was the only pandemic-related fatality reported since Friday.
No additional coronavirus outbreaks were reported in Merced County on Monday, nor were any previous outbreak locations struck from the list. A total of 10 active COVID-19 outbreaks are listed locally.
Outbreaks are closed when there are no new confirmed cases at the facility for 14 days.
Monday, however, did bring the addition of two more Merced County residents actively hospitalized due to COVID-19. The new patients raised current hospitalizations to 41.
Less than a quarter of hospitalized residents are being cared for within Merced County. Thirty-one of those actively hospitalized patients are at facilities outside of the county.
The number of local hospitalizations ever caused because of severe COVID-19 cases increased to 690 on Monday.
Also since Friday, 67 new laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases were added to Merced County’s running tally. Daily case counts numbered 18 on Saturday, 19 on Sunday and 30 on Monday, according to County Public Health.
A total of 8,939 individuals have now tested positive for COVID-19 since the first case was confirmed. While the caseload approaches the 9,000 threshold, the climb through the 8,000s has been slower than previous benchmarks in the thousands.
Infections presumed to currently be active fell slightly since Friday by three cases to 353 on Monday. Active cases are an estimate based on the number of laboratory confirmed positive tests during the past two weeks.
Merced County’s testing positivity percentage, however, fell significantly since Friday. Testing positivity measures the percentage of county residents screened for the novel coronavirus during the last week whose results return positive.
The data point — a critical metric used to gauge when counties are permitted to reopen more nonessential businesses — improved from 4% to 3.6%. Consistently low testing positivity indicates optimistic news for the prospect of more local businesses being permitted to open under the statewide economic plan.
Still, Merced County must improve its rate at which residents are testing positive per capita. To move out of the strictest business closure parameters, new daily cases per 100,000 residents will have to drop from more than nine residents to below seven.
The state releases county-specific data for testing positivity and positive cases per capita every Tuesday. Even if Tuesday’s data release shows that Merced County aligns with required metrics, it will have to remain in compliance for two weeks before any reopening takes place.
As of Monday, a total of 54,595 COVID-19 tests of Merced County residents have been conducted. Of those, 16.62% have returned with a positive test result.
This story was originally published September 28, 2020 at 5:20 PM.
