Merced County remains under same COVID-19 rules for now, but possible restrictions loom
Although some key COVID-19 data tracked by the Merced County Department of Public Health continued to worsen Tuesday, the latest state and county reports did offer some relief.
For the second day in a row, no further COVID-19 related deaths of county residents were reported. To date, 164 known residents have perished from the virus.
Plus, the state’s weekly update of county reopening tiers Tuesday showed Merced County would stay under the same rules for another week.
County Public Health officials warned last week that Merced County was at risk of regressing back to the strictest state-mandated closure regulations, due to its worsening COVID-19 demographics.
Merced County’s currently grouped into the second strictest of the four reopening tiers, labeled red and defined as having “substantial” risk of COVID-19 transmission.
Still, as the county’s COVID-19 data continued to teeter, the risk of more closures remains.
Three key data metrics utilized by the state to assign counties reopening tiers are: new daily cases per 100,000 residents, testing positivity (the percentage of residents screened for COVID-19 during the past week who test positive) and health equity quartile positivity (testing positivity in a county’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods).
New daily cases per 100,000 residents as of Tuesday was 12.8 — well above the county’s current tier assignment maximum of 7 new cases per 100,000. Testing positivity and health quartile positivity remained within the reopening tier’s required thresholds on Tuesday. However, both had notably ticked up compared to preceding weeks.
If a county’s data worsens for two consecutive weeks, it is reverted to a more restrictive tier. If Merced County’s metrics fall short again next week, the county would almost certainly regress to the strictest closures.
Some members of the Merced County Board of Supervisors recently voiced unwillingness to subject the county to another wave of closures.
County Public Health officials said last week that the department’s focus is maintaining Merced as a tier two county, rather than moving toward increased reopening, which is currently out of reach.
Nearby Fresno, Kings and Kern counties are also on the cusp of scaling back to the most extreme state-mandated closures, depending on next week’s update.
Several counties across California on Tuesday saw local data exceed current tier thresholds for a second week in a row and were demoted to more restrictive tiers.
More on latest COVID-19 data
An additional 53 COVID-19 infections were tallied to Merced County’s total on Tuesday. The new cases increased all known infections since the pandemic’s beginning to 10,193.
A rising number of cases presumed active is also indicative of COVID-19’s increased spread in Merced County. Active cases rose, again, by 12 on Tuesday to 621. The increase marked the highest number of infections presumed active since Sept. 14.
Active infections are an estimate based on the number of new laboratory confirmed cases during the past two weeks. Although it is a rough count, the data point reflects a greater number of residents testing positive again.
The number of residents having ever been hospitalized due to COVID-19 also grew by two individuals on Tuesday to 728.
Active hospitalizations, however, remained stable at 33. Thirteen patients are hospitalized locally — up two patients compared to Monday.
One workplace location was struck from the list of COVID-19 outbreaks, decreasing active outbreaks to 13. Nutrien Ag Solutions in Merced was removed, meaning the facility had no further COVID-19 cases traced back for two weeks.
A total of 67,399 coronavirus tests have been performed in Merced County to date, and 15.33% of those have returned positive.
Statewide, 977,218 cases have been confirmed and 18,001 deaths have been traced to the virus.
