Merced County reports more than 400 new cases in three days, as Valley infections soar
Three more Merced County residents have died after contracting the novel coronavirus, the Merced County Department of Public Health reported on Monday.
A total of 179 pandemic-related resident fatalities have occurred to date.
Two or the recent deaths included a man and a woman age 65 or older with underlying health conditions. The health background of the third person who died has not been released.
Since Friday, Merced County has reported 402 new infections. That includes 86 cases Saturday, 181 Sunday and 135 Monday. A total of 11,388 county residents have now tested positive for COVID-19.
Coronavirus cases are up both in the Central Valley and nationwide.
The six-county region comprised of Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties collectively reported almost 2,200 new cases since Friday, including more than 1,270 on Monday.
Workplace outbreaks up
Three more workplaces have joined the list active COVID-19 outbreaks in Merced County. The new outbreaks are: Merced County Human Services Agency’s Wardrobe Avenue office, Wellmade Products in Merced and the Los Banos Fire Department.
A total of 26 known outbreaks are now on the list. Except for skilled nursing facilities, where just one case constitutes an outbreak due to the high risk setting, outbreaks are defined as three or more cases linked to a workplace within two weeks.
Outbreaks are considered closed and are removed from the list when no new cases are traced back to a location for two weeks.
Having breached the threshold of 10,000 total cases just two weeks ago, Monday’s count put Merced County’s caseload well into the 11,000s. The first case of coronavirus in Merced County was reported March 22.
Statewide, there have been 1.1 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and 18,676 deaths.
Numbers resemble summer spikes
Sunday’s numbers are especially notable because the county’s daily caseloads have only tallied higher than 200 five times during the pandemic — each during the summer’s case spike.
Recently cases have ticked back up, though they haven’t yet reached the 200 to 300-plus daily cases marked by July and August.
With more infections reported over the weekend, the number of those presumed to be active leaped up as well.
As of Monday, cases presumed active are 1,248 — an increase of more than 240 COVID-19 infections since County Public Health’s last report on Friday. Active cases haven’t been that high since Aug. 27.
Cases presumed to be active are estimated via the number of positive COVID-19 tests during the past two weeks. Although a rough count, the climbing metric is indicative of the virus’s upsurge in Merced County.
Also reflective of this is testing positivity, which measures the percentage of residents screened for COVID-19 during the last week whose results are positive. After steadily climbing in recent weeks, testing positivity just passed 7% on Monday. Two weeks ago it was 4.8%.
Testing positivity is one of several metrics used by the state to group counties into four reopening tiers defined by California’s pandemic blueprint. Lower testing positivity, along with other data benchmarks, generally means more sectors of a county’s economy may reopen.
Now, rising testing positivity is inching toward the 8%-plus threshold marked by the strictest reopening tier. Merced County and many counties were reverted to the purple tier a week ago as COVID-19 data worsened statewide. Many nonessential businesses were mandated to reduce or completely close indoor operations.
A total of 73,769 Merced County residents have been screened for the novel coronavirus to date. Of those, 15.63% of all tests have returned positive — slightly higher than last week.
One metric that improved Monday was active hospitalizations of county residents. There are 43 residents currently hospitalized — eight fewer patients compared to Friday. Twenty are being cared for at facilities within the county.
The total number of COVID-19-cased hospitalizations since the pandemic’s start rose by seven patients.
Across the Valley
Stanislaus County: The county reported 226 new positive COVID-19 tests on Sunday, the largest single-day number in months. As of Monday, there have been a total of 418 deaths, 20,658 positive cases and 18,749 recoveries since the pandemic’s start.
Madera County: 171 cases since Friday, 5,885 to date; no additional deaths, 80 to date.
Mariposa County: 18 new cases since Friday, 112 to date; no additional deaths, two to date.
Fresno County: California Department of Public Health reported Monday that positive test results were received for 342 new cases, following the disclosure of 357 cases on Saturday and 338 on Sunday. That’s a total of 1,037 new cases since Friday, and the first time since mid-August that Fresno County has seen three consecutive days with more than 300 new patients reported by the state.
Kings County: 267 new cases since Friday, which pushed the county’s cumulative total to 10,259; one additional death, 87 to date. More than 4,800 of the infections to date have been among inmates at state prisons in Avenal and Corcoran.
Tulare County: 209 cases since Friday, 19,882 to date; one additional death, 304 to date.
