Merced County’s COVID infections, hospitalizations improve after tough start for 2022
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After a brutal start to a new year largely defined by the rampant spread of COVID-19’s highly contagious omicron variant, the pandemic is returning to a more manageable state in Merced County.
With nearly 17,000 COVID-19 infections recorded by the Merced County Department of Public Health in January, more cases were counted during the first month of 2022 than at any point during the pandemic. New daily infections ascended to record-breaking peaks several times, topping out at 1,140 cases recorded on Jan. 20 alone.
Meanwhile, COVID-19-related hospitalizations reached the highest number of patients in a year.
But local COVID-19 cases reported by Merced County Public Health on Monday, which numbered 44, marked the lowest daily tally recorded since Dec. 26. Although daily counts have been slightly higher since, new cases haven’t crossed the 100-count threshold in a week.
Despite the improved state of the pandemic in Merced County throughout February, the month has seen 34 COVID-19-related deaths so far, according to County Public Health. A total of 783 Merced County residents have died since the beginning of the pandemic.
Total laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infections counted throughout the course of the pandemic came to 70,648 on Thursday, County Public Health reported.
Estimated active infections, meaning the number of new laboratory confirmed cases over the past two weeks, counted 1,712 Thursday, according to County Public Health. That’s down from the 8,805 active infections reported on Feb. 1.
Although new cases are still numbering higher than they have during the lowest points of the pandemic, when daily counts have decreased to as little as 10-30 in Merced County, the virus finally appears to be spreading at a consistently lower rate.
The state relaxed its stance on mandatory masking for vaccinated residents last week in response to the improving state of the pandemic throughout most of California.
Pandemic-related hospitalizations are down in Merced County, too. The latest County Public Health data released Friday reported 25 patients were hospitalized for COVID-19 as of Thursday.
More than double that number were being cared for on Feb. 1, when 57 patients were hospitalized for severe COVID-19 cases.
Available intensive care unit beds in Merced County numbered eight Thursday, according to state data. At least one ICU bed has been available locally since Feb. 8. Across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties, Thursday was the first time since Jan. 9 that there were fewer than 500 coronavirus patients requiring hospital treatment
Across the 12-county San Joaquin Valley, ICU capacity came to 18.5% Thursday, the state reported. That’s an improvement from just 8.9% Feb. 1. As it has throughout much of the pandemic, however, the Valley continues to report the lowest ICU availability than any other region in California. Statewide ICU capacity averaged 23% Thursday.
Other crucial metrics for gauging the current state of the pandemic have improved in Merced County, too, including testing positivity and new daily cases per 100,000 residents. While the county’s metrics are still higher than statewide averages, they have been trending downward.
Testing positivity in Merced County (the percentage of tested people who have a positive result) decreased to 15.7% Thursday from 34.4% Feb. 1, but remained higher than the state average of 4%.
New daily cases per 100,000 county residents came to 37.6 Thursday compared to 168.7 on Feb. 1. California as a whole is averaging 23.6 cases per 100,000 residents, according to state data.
Merced County also continues to lag behind in vaccinations against COVID-19. Just shy of 50% of the county’s population eligible to receive the vaccine were fully vaccinated as of Feb. 1. Since then, that percentage has crept up to only 51.5% Thursday, compared to the statewide average of 73.7%.
Unvaccinated individuals are 16 times more likely to die due to COVID-19 than those who received a booster dose, 10.5 times more likely to be hospitalized and five times more likely to contract the virus, according to state data.
Information about receiving a COVID-19 vaccine or test is available on the Merced County Department of Public Health’s website.
This story was originally published February 25, 2022 at 2:20 PM.
