COVID-19: Outbreak reported at elementary school, three more Merced County residents die
As the Merced County Department of Public Health wrapped up the week’s novel coronavirus reports Friday, local data continued to add up to worrying numbers.
Merced County’s COVID-19 demographics are crucial right now. The county and nearby Fresno, Kings and Kern counties are each on the cusp of reverting to the most extreme state-mandated closures depending on next week’s data update from the state.
If metrics worsen for the second week in a row for these counties, some recent reopenings will again have to scale back.
Three more Merced County residents have died due to contracting COVID-19, County Public Health confirmed on Friday. Total county fatalities traced to the virus now tally 169. Five of those deaths occurred this week.
Two of the deceased residents were male and one was female, according to County Public Health. One individual was between age 50-64 and the other two were 65-years-old or older. While two of the deceased had underlying health conditions prior to death, the health status of the third is unknown.
A new outbreak was also reported at Merquin Elementary School in Stevinson. The addition brought the active outbreak list to 16 locations.
The school could not be immediately reached for comment about the extent or nature of the outbreak.
A workplace facility is defined as three or more laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases traced to a location within two weeks. Just one positive case, however, constitutes an outbreak at a skilled nursing facility on account of such locations being high risk.
Outbreaks are closed when no further infections are linked to a facility for two weeks.
Friday also brought with it an additional 61 laboratory confirmed coronavirus cases. While lower than Thursday’s spike, the tally still marked a count notably higher than last month, when new daily cases had consistently sunk to less than 30 on most days.
To date, 10,374 Merced County residents have received a positive COVID-19 test.
Cases presumed to currently be active tipped to 700 on Friday. Active cases have not numbered higher than 700 since early September.
Although active infections are an estimate based on the number of new cases during the past two weeks, the metric is indicative that COVID-19 is on an upswing in Merced County.
Also supportive of this is the county’s testing positivity, which continued its climbing streak on Friday with a significant jump to 5.5% from 5% on Thursday. Testing positivity shows the percentage of all county residents tested for the virus during the past week whose results return positive.
The data point is one of several metrics used by the state to group counties into four levels of reopening tiers. County Public Health officials cautioned last week that Merced County, which occupies the second strictest reopening tier, is at risk of regressing to the tier with the most stringent economic closures.
All California county tier assignments are updated by the state once a week on Tuesdays. If metrics worsen for two consecutive weeks, counties are assigned a more restrictive tier. Next Tuesday will be a deciding moment for whether Merced County is forced to shutter certain operations, like indoor dining and bars.
Active hospitalizations of county residents declined on Friday, but only by one patient. Of the 38 current hospitalizations, 18 individuals are being cared for within the county while the rest are in outside facilities.
Total hospitalizations due to COVID-19 rose by three patients to 735.
To date, 68,554 COVID-19 tests have been performed in Merced County and 15.34% have returned positive.
