Merced County reports new COVID-19 death after six days without fatalities
Merced County lasted nearly a week without a new novel coronavirus-caused death, but the Merced County Department of Public Health on Tuesday confirmed the first resident fatality since last Tuesday.
The death increased local COVID-19 fatalities since the beginning of the pandemic to 153.
The individual was a man, age 65 or older, with underlying health conditions prior to death, according to County Public Health.
Additional laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases tallied 11 on Tuesday. A total of 9,386 known coronavirus infections have been reported in Merced County since the first case was confirmed in March.
As total cases grew, so too did the number of infections presumed to be active. The active case count, which rose to 296 on Tuesday, has fluctuated in recent days following a period of consistent decline.
Active cases are an estimate based on the number of new coronavirus cases within the last two weeks.
Reopening prospects for Merced County
The state’s Tuesday update of how counties are fare in terms of economic reopening parameters also showed negative indicators for Merced County.
The county’s new daily cases increased from 6.1 to 7.4 per 100,000 residents since last Tuesday, according to the latest state data. Testing positivity rose from 3.5% to 4%.
California’s reopening plan places counties in four tiers based on local COVID-19 data. County testing positivity, meaning the percentage of individuals screened for COVID-19 during the past week who test positive, and new daily cases per 100,000 residents must meet certain thresholds in order to advance to less restrictive tiers. The state updates tier assignments once a week on Tuesdays.
Merced County has met parameters for the second strictest “red” tier since Oct. 6. Despite data worsening on Tuesday compared to the prior week, the county remained in its same tier.
Counties are reverted to a more restrictive tier if data worsens for two consecutive weeks.
In order to advance to the next tier’s less restrictive reopening rules, Merced County must improve its new daily cases to less than four per 100,000 residents and maintain testing positivity below 5%.
More local COVID-19 numbers
One improving data point in Merced County on Tuesday was the number of residents currently hospitalized on account of severe COVID-19 cases.
With five fewer patients hospitalized, active hospitalizations decreased to 23. Just six individuals are being cared for within Merced County. The rest are hospitalized at outside facilities.
Active COVID-19 outbreaks were again unchanged on Tuesday. Ten workplaces are currently defined as having active outbreaks.
Locations are cleared from the list when no additional infections are tied to the workplace for two weeks.
A total of 60,209 coronavirus tests have been performed in Merced County to date. Of those, 15.82% have returned positive.
Statewide, 870,791 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed. Deaths tied to the pandemic total 6,970.
