With less than 1 week to turn COVID-19 metrics around, Merced County data gets worse
Following an absence of Merced County novel coronavirus updates on Wednesday due to the Veterans Day holiday, County Public Health’s Thursday report showed critical COVID-19 metrics have worsened notably.
For example, two more county residents since Tuesday have died after contracting COVID-19. A total of 166 known fatalities have now occurred in connection to the virus.
A female and male were among the two most recently deceased individuals, according to County Public Health. One was between age 50-64, and the other was 65 or older. One of the deceased had underlying health conditions prior to death. The health status of the other is unknown.
Three more workplace locations were added to the county’s list of active COVID-19 outbreaks as well. Fifteen facilities are currently listed as having outbreaks.
New Bethany Residential Care in Los Banos and Franciscan, a skilled nursing facility in Merced, were each again added to the outbreak list after having been previously removed. The Merced County Office of Education’s ASSETS Program, an after-school program at Yamato Colony School,joined the outbreak list for the first time.
Active COVID-19 outbreaks are defined as at least three laboratory confirmed cases linked to a facility within two weeks. The exception is skilled nursing facilities, where just one positive case constitutes an outbreak due to the high-risk setting.
Outbreaks are removed from the list and considered closed when no additional cases are traced back to the location for two weeks.
More on latest COVID-19 numbers
An additional 120 COVID-19 infections were laboratory confirmed since Tuesday. A total of 10,313 Merced County residents have tested positive for the virus to date.
Wednesday accounted for 26 of those new infections, while Thursday’s case count leaped to 94, according to County Public Health.
Thursday’s jump marked the highest single-day case increase since Aug. 24, when 103 test results returned positive. Merced County saw its highest daily case counts so far in June through August, when new infections often tallied upward of 100 each day.
Daily positive tests in recent weeks have crept back toward that summer peak, but have not yet crossed the threshold of 100 new daily cases.
As Merced County’s total COVID-19 cases grow at a faster rate again, so too do other key metrics.
The number of cases presumed active climbed to 690 on Thursday — an increase of 69 cases since Tuesday. Active cases have not tallied so high since Sept. 11.
Active cases are an estimate based on the number of new laboratory confirmed positive tests during the last two weeks.
Also indicative of the county’s COVID-19 uptick is its rising testing positivity, which reached 5% on Thursday. Testing positivity shows the percentage of residents screened for the virus during the past week whose results return positive.
Testing positivity is one metric examined by the state to organize counties into different reopening tiers with varying levels of restrictions. Generally, lower positivity means more sectors can reopen. Other data, like new cases per 100,000 residents and health equity quartile, also determine reopening tiers.
Merced County has occupied the second-strictest tier for several weeks. But until Thursday, the county had claimed testing positivity in compliance within the third tier’s threshold — a positive indicator for expanding reopenings. With testing positivity reaching 5% on Thursday, that is no longer the case.
The county’s worsening testing positivity is reflective of warnings from County Public Health officials last week, who said their focus is on maintaining Merced County in its current tier and preventing another wave of state-mandated closures. The prospect of opening more sectors of the local economy is out of reach as of now, officials said.
County tier assignments are updated by the state once a week on Tuesdays. If Merced County’s COVID-19 metrics worsen for the second week in a row next week, the county will be reverted back to the tier with the most stringent closure rules.
Active hospitalizations of county residents due to severe COVID-19 cases also grew by six patients on Thursday to 39. Eighteen of those patients are hospitalized within the county.
Total hospitalizations during the pandemic also increased to 732 from 728.
Of the 68,033 total COVID-19 tests performed in Merced County to date, 15.35% have returned positive.
This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 5:47 PM.
