Merced County’s estimated active COVID-19 cases double in two weeks, officials say
The novel coronavirus continued to spread at concerning rates throughout Merced County the day before Thanksgiving, according to data from the Department of Public Health.
Additional cases, active infections, new hospitalizations and the county’s testing positivity were among the data points that showed significant increases Wednesday.
On a positive note, no new COVID-19-related resident deaths were confirmed for the second day in a row. A total of 179 known lives have been lost to the pandemic locally.
Plus, no additional COVID-19 outbreaks were reported for the first time this week. The active outbreak list is currently 28 locations long. A quarter of the outbreaks are at schools or locations related to schools.
Still, new positive COVID-19 test results continued to tally high on Wednesday as 77 cases were added to Merced County’s running total. Positive test results from the beginning of the pandemic are now 11,537.
The number of infections presumed active have recently ballooned due to consistently high daily case counts. The metric has about doubled in two weeks to 1,318 cases presumed active as of Wednesday.
Active cases are a rough count estimated via the number of positive laboratory confirmed cases over the past 14 days.
Positive cases are increasingly accounting for a larger percentage of overall tests compared to negative results. Average testing positivity during the last seven days jumped to 8% on Wednesday from 7.3% the day before. One week ago, the positivity rate was 6.2%.
Of the 74,760 tests conducted during the entirety of the pandemic, 15.63% have returned positive.
Merced County residents ill enough to be hospitalized for COVID-19 decreased by two patients to 44 as of Wednesday. The number of those being cared for within the county declined as well to 17.
Still, total COVID-19-caused hospitalizations grew by four more patients to 778.
In order to prevent already swelling COVID-19 transmission in the community, the Merced County Department of Public Health is urging residents to refrain from traveling or mixing with other households for Thanksgiving celebrations.
Gatherings with other households should be held virtually in order to be safe, according to Merced County Department of Public Health.
Past holiday gatherings have been correlated to COVID-19 case spikes about two weeks after celebrations took place. With cases already on the rise, the existing surge could be exacerbated if this pattern again occurs.
Merced County and state public health officials also continue to recommend that residents be habitually screened for COVID-19 every 14 days. This aids in identifying asymptomatic cases, as well as bringing testing positivity rates down.
Hospitals face new barriers to treating COVID-19 patients
As the number of infections has increased, the number of patients in recent days and weeks at many hospitals across the Valley has more than doubled. The upward trend of hospitalizations has many public health experts worried the hospital system will become overwhelmed with even more patients in an already busy season.
Hospitals in the Valley already experienced a spike in COVID-19 patients during the summer, when the peak number approached 400 in Fresno County and more than 600 across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties.
In the summer, hospitals had access to additional staffing including travel-registry nurses and medical teams from the U.S. Department of Defense deployed to several facilities to help with the workload. At the time, other parts of the country had already moved past their surge in hospitalizations, which meant California could rely on additional outside resources.
But this time, those resources are spread thin. Public health experts say it’s because hospitals nationwide are now seeing a second spike in cases, which could limit the ability of California hospitals to rely on as much out-of-state help.
Just days away from Thanksgiving and the busiest shopping day of the year, local officials are concerned people will fail to listen to public health pleas to wear masks, practice social distancing and limit indoor social gatherings during the holidays.
State numbers show dramatic increases
California in the past two weeks has averaged about 10,600 new cases of COVID-19 per day. The daily case rate has nearly tripled, and the statewide positivity rate has almost doubled in the past month. California as of Tuesday had recorded a total of 1,148,080 COVID-19 cases and 18,881 deaths. That’s an increase of 16,681 new cases and 103 new deaths from the day before.
The state’s number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 had dramatically increased during the first three weeks of November, from a little more than 2,500 at the start of the month to more than 5,800 by Tuesday. A total of 385 new patients were admitted to a hospital between Monday and Tuesday, a new single-day high.
45 of California’s 58 counties now reside in the purple Tier 1 stage of California’s reopening plan, called the Blueprint for a Safer Economy. Eight other counties are in red Tier 2, meaning there is “substantial” risk of transmitting the virus. Five counties are in orange Tier 3, where the risk is considered “moderate.”
National updates
Nationwide, a total of 12.6 million Americans have been infected with COVID-19, as the U.S. averages about 175,521 daily cases, according to an analysis by The New York Times. The number of deaths increased by 2,216 on Tuesday, totaling to nearly 260,000 deaths. 178,200 new cases were reported in the U.S. on Tuesday, increasing by an average of 43% from 14 days ago.
The Food and Drug Administration this week issued an emergency authorization to start implementing the experimental antibody treatment used on President Donald Trump after he contracted COVID-19 last month, The New York Times reports.
The experimental cocktail, formulated by the pharmaceutical company Regeneron, mixes two antibodies together. Some studies show the treatment has helped maintain the severity of the infection and reduced the number of medical visits for people who took the drugs in the early stages of their infection.
For now, the new treatment would only be available for Americans who are considered high risk and have COVID-19, which includes seniors over the age of 65 and those who have underlying conditions.
