Merced County remains in strict COVID-19 purple tier, as new daily infections surpass 100
With novel coronavirus cases regularly tallying upwards of 100 in recent days, Merced County remaining in the state’s strictest economic reopening tier came as no surprise Tuesday.
The state’s latest update to county tier assignments showed Merced County isn’t alone, as over 99% of California is now subject to the purple tier’s stringent rules due to “widespread” risk of COVID-19 transmission.
Amid the rising numbers, another Merced County resident has died due to COVID-19 — bringing the total number of local fatalities to 182. Eight of those deaths have occurred during the last two weeks.
According to the Merced County Department of Public Health, the most recent death was a man, age 65 or older. It is unknown whether he had underlying health conditions prior to death.
New positive COVID-19 cases in Merced numbered 106 on Tuesday. Known local cases since the pandemic began are now 12,281.
Local outbreaks
Seven new active COVID-19 outbreaks have been added to Merced County’s list since Thanksgiving. They are: Anberry Transitional Care, Central Star Crisis Stabilization Unit, Scholle IPN packaging, Merced Behavioral Health Center, Marie Green Psychiatric Facility, Creative Alternatives - Harmony foster agency and Grace Homes nursing home. Each are in Merced with the exception of Grace Homes, which is in Livingston.
Park Merced Assisted Living and In-Shape Health Clubs’ Yosemite Avenue location in Merced have each been struck from the outbreak list since Thanksgiving.
Outbreaks are defined as three or more laboratory confirmed cases linked to a workplace within two weeks. The exception is skilled nursing facilities, where one positive case constitutes an outbreak on account of the high-risk setting.
Outbreaks are closed and removed from the list when no further cases are traced to the facility for 14 days.
In positive news, County Public Health’s report showed that cases presumed active declined for the first time in recent weeks. Active cases fell, slightly, to 1,619 from 1,623 on Monday.
Still, that’s nearly double two weeks ago when active cases totaled 843.
Active cases are an estimate based on the number of new COVID-19 positive tests during the last 14 days.
More on Valley numbers
Just five counties are now grouped into the second strictest red tier, defined as having “substantial” transmission risk. Mariposa County is the only county in the Valley region that is outside the purple tier.
Mariposa County had been in the least-restrictive yellow tier as recently as mid-November, but last week was bumped back to orange Tier 3 because of an increase in cases, and then was pushed further into red Tier 2 on Saturday and remained there as of Tuesday.
Only Sierra County is categorized into the more lenient “moderate” tier.
As the virus surges across the state, no county currently meets COVID-19 data requirements for the least stringent “minimal” tier.
According to the state’s Tuesday update, data points indicative of COVID-19’s spread in Merced County worsened in the last week.
New daily cases per 100,000 residents jumped to 30.2 from 20.5 one week ago. Two weeks ago, new daily cases per 100,000 tallied 16.8.
Any county with more than seven new daily cases over a seven day average is grouped into the strict purple tier. With Merced County’s average more than four times that, significant improvement must be made before the prospect of more economic reopening becomes feasible.
Testing positivity, which shows the percentage of positive test results compared to overall tests during the last seven days, has consistently climbed in recent weeks too. Positivity increased to 10.3% from 7.3% last week, according to the most recent state data.
As the virus surges throughout Merced County and across California, the specter of more stay-at-home orders loom. Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Monday that if case trends continue, he may reimpose orders similar to those issued in March in order to avoid overwhelming hospitals.
State and County Public Health officials have warned that amid the current COVID-19 surge, cases, hospitalizations and deaths will soon get far worse if Californians failed to practice precautions like limiting gatherings with other households during Thanksgiving.
Hospitalizations worsen
Only four intensive care unit beds were left available in Merced County as of Monday, the most recently available state data says.
Valleywide, the number of people hospitalized for coronavirus disease topped 500 for the first time since mid-August, reaching 508 on Monday across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa and Merced counties. Of those, 91 were in intensive-care units. There were also 59 more patients with suspected COVID-19 infections.
Since Monday, however, two fewer residents were actively hospitalized for COVID-19 for a total of 59. Of those, 26 are being looked after within the county -- six fewer than Monday.
But total COVID-19 hospitalizations during the pandemic rose by 14 patients to 803 since Monday.
The Merced County Department of Public Health was not immediately available to comment on COVID-19-related hospital bed or ICU capacity concerns.
Around the Valley
Coronavirus status updates for central San Joaquin Valley counties on Tuesday included:
Fresno County: 144 new cases reported by the state Department of Public Health, 38,712 to date; seven additional deaths, 488 to date. Fresno County reports deaths on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Kings County: 68 new cases, 11,434 to date; one additional death, 89 to date. Kings County’s figures include more than 5,600 cases among inmates at state prisons in Avenal and Corcoran.
Madera County: 56 new cases, 6,436 to date; no additional deaths, 86 to date.
Mariposa County: Four new cases, 143 to date; one additional death, three to date.
Stanislaus County: 428 deaths, 22,399 infections since pandemic’s start. The county reported 448 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, believed to be the highest daily count since the summer.
Tulare County: 419 new cases, 21,332 to date; no additional deaths, 312 to date.
Since the first cases of novel coroanvirus were confirmed in the Valley in early March, more than 90,200 residents have tested positive, whether they experienced symptoms or not. Of those, 1,160 have lost their lives to the disease.
