Merced County reports nearly 200 new COVID-19 cases, one death Thursday
The Merced County Department of Public Health reported one new COVID-19 related death and 195 new cases Thursday.
A total of 186 deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported in Merced County since the start of the pandemic.
The latest death was a woman over 65 years old. It was unknown if she had underlying health conditions.
Merced County has now had 12,622 laboratory confirmed cases. New daily infections are now regularly tallying over the 100 case threshold in Merced County. The growing number of positive test results are climbing toward the record-setting days reported during the summer case spike, when new daily infections sometimes came to more than 200 and 300.
Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday responded to the recent surge hitting California by announcing a new stay-at-home order that will soon affect Merced County.
The measure would be triggered when hospitals across the San Joaquin Valley region dip down to 15% or less of capacity in their intensive-care units.
When that happens, some services that have been allowed to be open in Merced County would face a closure of at least three weeks, including barber shops, hair salons and other personal-care services.
Retailers would be limited to 20% capacity for indoor operations, and restaurants would be limited to only take-out and delivery services, with no outdoor dining.
As of Wednesday, officials at Merced County Department of Public Health said they only had seven ICU unit beds left.
There are 64 Merced County residents currently hospitalized, including 31 currently hospitalized in Merced County. There have been 816 residents hospitalized due to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
There are 1,738 residents listed a probably active.
Across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties, Thursday’s COVID-19 updates included:
Stanislaus County: 477 new COVID-19 cases Thursday. Five more people have died, for a total of 433 as of Thursday. The county has 22,876 people who have tested positive since the pandemic’s st
Fresno County: 320 new cases Thursday, 39,324 to date; no additional deaths, 488 to date.
Kings County: 127 new cases, 11,682 to date; no additional deaths, 89 to date.
Madera County: 55 new cases, 6,482 to date; four additional deaths, 90 to date.
Mariposa County: Four new cases, 148 to date; no additional deaths, three to date.
Tulare County: 310 new cases, 22,088 to date; one additional death, 315 to date.
Valleywide, a total of more than 92,000 residents have tested positive for coronavirus since the first local cases were confirmed in early March. Of those, 1,171 have died from the respiratory illness caused by the virus.
The Fresno Bee contributed to this report.
