No Merced County COVID-19 deaths reported over weekend. Dole plant back on outbreaks list
The Merced County Department of Public Health on Monday confirmed 66 additional novel coronavirus cases over the weekend, raising the county’s total caseload to 9,531 infections since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
No further COVID-19-caused deaths of Merced County residents were reported since Friday. To date, the pandemic has claimed 155 local lives.
New coronavirus cases tallied 10 on Saturday, 11 on Sunday and 40 on Monday, according to County Public Health.
Active hospitalizations on account of severe coronavirus cases also rose to on Monday to 25 -- an increase of four patients since Friday. Eight residents are hospitalized within Merced County, while the remaining majority are cared for at outside facilities.
County residents ever hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased to 698.
While the number of known COVID-19 outbreaks in Merced County remained stable at seven, one workplace location was struck from the list and another made a reappearance.
See’s Candies at the Merced Mall was removed from active outbreak status, meaning no additional cases have been tied to the location for two weeks.
The Dole facility in Atwater, however, was again added to the active outbreak list after having been previously removed on Sep. 21. Workplace locations are added to the list when three or more laboratory confirmed cases are linked to a facility within two weeks.
Other important metrics improve
Despite the increase in some data points, other crucial COVID-19 metrics improved or remained stable compared to last week, when County Public Health officials warned that the direction of Merced County’s data put it at risk of backsliding toward a more restrictive reopening tier.
For example, the number of COVID-19 cases presumed active since Friday decreased by a dozen individuals to 304. Still, that’s 10 more active cases than one week ago.
Merced County’s testing positivity also significantly decreased from 3.4% on Friday to 2.7% Monday. This is notable, as County Public Health warned that rising testing positivity was the main data point risking the county for another wave of business closures.
Testing positivity, which indicates the percentage of individuals screened for COVID-19 during the past week who test positive, is one of two main data points looked at by the state to determine how much a county can reopen. Generally, consistently lower testing positivity means more economic sectors may reopen.
Merced County’s COVID-19 data currently lands it in the “red” tier, meaning the county is subject to the second strictest state-defined reopening rules.
The state updates county and state-wide statistics once a week on Tuesdays. Counties are reverted to a stricter reopening tier if local data worsens for two consecutive weeks.
Of the 62,832 total Merced County residents screened for COVID-19 to date, 15.38% of results have returned positive.
This story was originally published October 26, 2020 at 5:01 PM.
