COVID-19 outbreaks in Merced County nearly double, some nursing homes on list
The Merced County Department of Public Health on Thursday reported 35 additional laboratory confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.
The new infections raised the number of known cases in Merced County since the pandemic’s start to 9,623.
Continuing almost a week-long streak, no further COVID-19-related deaths were reported for the sixth day in a row on Thursday. The most recently reported COVID-19-caused death last Friday increased fatalities to 155.
Ever since cases and deaths began to surge in Merced County over summer, it has become rare for no new fatalities to be reported this many days apart. But recently, local deaths have dropped in both number and frequency.
Nearly doubling on Thursday, however, was the county’s list of active coronavirus outbreaks. The list grew from seven to 12.
Four of the five additional outbreaks are at locations that were already added to, removed, and now added again to the active outbreak list. These include Anberry Rehabilitation Center in Atwater, Anberry Transitional Care in Merced, Hy-Lond Healthcare in Merced and Hilmar Cheese Company.
Triple C Inc., a concrete contractor business in Atwater, made the active outbreak list for the first time.
A workplace location is considered to have an outbreak when three or more cases are confirmed at the facility within two weeks. Skilled nursing facilities, where just one case constitutes an outbreak due to the high risk setting, are the exception.
Locations are cleared from active outbreak status when no additional COVID-19 cases are traced back to the facility for two weeks.
Coronavirus cases presumed to currently be active also rose notably on Thursday by 19 cases to 321, marking the highest active case count since Oct. 1.
Active infections in recent weeks have bounced up and down the 300 threshold. Cases presumed active are an estimate based on the number of new laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases during the past two weeks.
Some COVID-19 data improves
Continuing to improve slightly on Thursday was Merced County’s testing positivity, which indicates the percentage of residents screened for COVID-19 during the last week who test positive. The data point is one of the crucial metrics looked at by the state to determine how much a county can open its local economy.
Testing positivity decreased to 2.4% on Thursday. Under California’s pandemic reopening plan, testing positivity under 2% is needed to advance to the least stringent of four opening tiers. Merced County’s COVID-19 data currently subjects it to the second strictest of the four tiers.
Active hospitalizations of Merced County residents with severe COVID-19 infections also declined by one patient since Wednesday to 25. Eight of the patients are hospitalized within the county, while the majority are cared for at outside facilities.
To date, 65,830 total county residents have been screened for COVID-19 during the pandemic and 15.32% have tested positive.
Statewide, 912,904 Californians have tested positive for coronavirus and 17,541 have died.
