Merced County total COVID-19 deaths approaching 200. Workplace outbreaks hit 40
The coronavirus pandemic claimed the lives of four more Merced County residents, the Merced County Department of Public Health reported on Tuesday.
The virus is now confirmed responsible for 198 known deaths of county residents.
Three of the deaths were men, the other was a woman. One of the deaths was a younger person, age 35-49-years-old. The other three people were age 65 or older. While three of the individuals had underlying conditions prior to their deaths, the prior health status of the fourth person is currently unknown by County Public Health.
Four additional COVID-19 outbreaks were also reported since Monday. The new outbreaks are: Anberry Rehabilitation Center in Atwater, LLC Retirement Home in Merced, an adult residential facility at God’s Love Outreach Ministries and Winfield Elementary in Winton.
Total local outbreaks tally at 40 with the four new additions.
A location is classified as having an outbreak when three or more laboratory confirmed cases are linked to a facility within 14 days. The exception is skilled nursing facilities, where only one positive case constitutes an outbreak.
Outbreaks are closed and removed from the list after there are no additional confirmed cases at the facility for a two-week period.
New cases on Tuesday tallied 214 in Merced County, raising the total number of laboratory confirmed infections to 13,851. That’s an increase of 1,570 new positive tests in one week.
With 2,391 infections presumed active as of Tuesday, active cases are approaching the all-time highs seen in mid-August.
Active cases are a rough count calculated via the number of new laboratory confirmed positive tests during the past two weeks. Last Tuesday, active infections tallied 1,619.
Strict rules remain
The day after the latest wave of economic closures swept over Merced County, the state’s Tuesday update to county COVID-19 reopening tiers indicated that strict rules would remain in place locally for some time.
Merced and other San Joaquin Valley counties, along with 11 Southern California counties, began another round of stringent state-mandated lockdown orders on Monday. The rules, which close bars, wineries and in-person dining, were triggered when the regions’ intensive care unity capacity dropped below 15%.
The measures will be in place for at least three weeks to avoid overwhelming hospitals with COVID-19 patients.
Of the five ICU capacity regions California is split into, the San Joaquin Valley ranks worst in terms of bed availability.
Just 5.6% of ICUs were free across the 12 Valley counties as of Tuesday. That’s down from 6.3% the day before. The Southern California region fares slightly better at 10.1%.
Merced County, however, is faring better than its regional counterparts — for now. The county’s ICU capacity was 29.6% on Tuesday, according to state data.
Neighboring Fresno, San Benito and Madera counties have 0% of beds available as of Tuesday. Stanislaus County’s capacity is 6.5%. Statewide, 13.3% of ICUs are free.
Still, 73 residents are currently hospitalized for severe cases of the virus, according to the Merced County Department of Public Health. That’s three more than Monday. Thirty-three patients are hospitalized within the county.
County residents ever hospitalized because of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic rose by 11 patients to 843 on Tuesday.
Merced County stays in the purple tier
The new economic closures due to dwindling ICU capacity are on top of measures already imposed by Merced County’s grouping into the strictest of four state-defined reopening tiers.
The tier, labeled purple and indicating “substantial” risk of novel coronavirus transmission, impacts 99.9% of California as of Tuesday.
The state’s update on Tuesday showed not only that Merced County would remain in the purple tier, but that its odds of shifting into the next tier’s more lax opening rules anytime soon are further off than before.
Since last Tuesday’s update, new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 Merced County residents rose to 37 from 30.2. Any higher than seven new daily cases over a seven day average lands a county in the purple tier. In order to shift into the less strict red tier, an average of 4-7 new daily cases is required.
The higher new daily cases rise in Merced County, the further it must bring cases back down before any business reopenings occur.
Testing positivity, meaning the percentage of residents screened for the virus whose results return positive, is also on a growth streak. Since last week’s state data update, when positivity was 10.3%, the metric has risen to 12.3%.
Before more Merced County businesses can open their doors and invite more patrons inside, the county must reduce positivity to the red tier’s 5-8% threshold.
Statewide, just three counties (Alpine, Inyo and Mariposa) occupy the red tier. Only Sierra County is grouped into the second-least restrictive orange tier. No counties are assigned the least stringent yellow tier.
California overall is averaging 34 new daily cases per 100,000 residents and testing positivity of 8.4%.
This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 6:31 PM.
