As Merced County COVID-19 data worsens, some supervisors reject idea of more closures
Merced County’s coronavirus data has continued to worsen in recent days, continuing a recent shift from encouraging metrics to concerning warning signs.
With that data in mind, officials with the Merced County Department of Public Health this week warned the Board of Supervisors those alarming trends could mean another round of state-mandated closures for businesses and other locations where people gather.
But some supervisors were resistant to the idea of closing businesses and gathering places once again.
“I’m not willing to go back . . . I’m done, because the state sits there and talks about wanting to put the decisions in the local officials’ hands, but it’s all BS,” said County Supervisor Scott Silveira. “They don’t feel our pain up there in Sacramento.”
California’s plan for reopening amid the pandemic groups counties into four tiers based on the severity of certain COVID-19 data. Tiers for levels of closures are ranked from the strictest purple tier up to the least stringent yellow tier.
Merced County advanced from the purple tier to the second strictest red tier in early October.
Current data puts the county a ways off from meeting the next tier’s metrics, and the data is worsening.
Public health officials don’t anticipate increased reopenings any time soon, meaning the focus is keeping Merced County in the red tier, said County Supervising Epidemiologist and Operations Chief Dr. Kristynn Sullivan.
“Purple is coming, unless we can really do something as a community to turn things around and get our cases lower,” Sullivan said.
When a county fails to meet its current tier assignment for two straight weeks, it reverts back to a stricter tier. Among the purple tier’s limitations are that restaurants may only offer to-go, delivery or outdoor dining, churches are limited to outdoor services and fitness clubs are barred from using indoor facilities.
As Merced County’s recent data makes the possibility of returning to purple increasingly likely, supervisors on Tuesday expressed frustration with how the state uses local data to organize the tier assignments.
“I do share the same frustrations,” said Supervisor Daron McDaniel. “The governor continues to move the goalpost.”
Unfair rules for Merced County?
County Public Health officials insisted following the state’s mandates is in the county’s best interest, but did appear to agree to an extent about reopening rules being inequitable.
Counties are in competition to test more residents, meaning the statewide testing median per 100,000 individuals changes. Counties that test above the state median are given a credit to improve their COVID-19 data, while those testing below, like Merced County, have their data penalized.
Sullivan said this is unfair, because it favors counties with higher median household income and more robust healthcare infrastructure.
“It’s not surprising at all,” Sullivan said. “We know the counties with more resources are able to pour more resources into bumping up their testing numbers.”
County Public Health Director Dr. Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp during the meeting said she understands the supervisors’ frustrations. But the inequities have been pointed out to the state, she said, and state officials have been receptive to feedback. Plus, she said a state task force has been created to address such issues.
Latest COVID-19 numbers
The 164th death of a Merced County resident was confirmed by County Public Health on Friday. The fatality marked the eight life lost this week.
The latest death was a woman , age 65 or older. It is unknown whether she had underlying health conditions prior to death.
A new COVID-19 outbreak was reported at Central Valley Cardiovascular Medical Group Inc. Fourteen workplace locations are currently listed as having outbreaks.
New COVID-19 cases on Friday tallied 66 — the highest daily count since Sept. 4. The additional infections brought the county’s running caseload to 9,982.
Of those total cases, 517 are now presumed to be active. That’s 40 more active cases compared to Thursday.
Although Sullivan on Tuesday acknowledged flaws with the state’s tier system, the county’s shift in worsening COVID-19 data is a real concern, she said.
“I do also just want to highlight that actual numbers of actual cases are increasing more rapidly than we would like,” Sullivan said.
The active case count is an estimate based on the number of laboratory confirmed cases during the past two weeks.
A rising number of positive tests is also indicated by Merced County’s testing positivity, which grew to 4.1% from 3.9%. The data point is one of the metrics looked at by the state to group counties into tiers. Generally, lower testing positivity means more reopening.
Active hospitalizations also increased by four patients to 35. Twelve patients are hospitalized within the county while the remaining majority are looked after elsewhere.
The number of residents ever hospitalized due to COVID-19 rose by five patients to 723.
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 6:07 PM.
