Merced County reaches zero available ICU beds, according to latest state COVID-19 data
Merced County has plummeted to the worst-case scenario of zero available intensive care unit beds, according to Tuesday’s update of the state’s online hospitals dashboard.
The state data typically lags one day behind, and at times it has shown some discrepancies with the Merced County Department of Public Health’s reports. County Public Health has not yet commented on the information.
The state’s data, which dates back to March 29, showed Merced County’s free ICU beds having only dropped so low one other time, which was Dec. 19.
The county has 24 ICU beds in total. Sixteen of those were occupied by COVID-19 patients Tuesday, according to the data.
As of Wednesday, 49 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized locally, according to County Public Health numbers. That’s two fewer hospitalizations than Tuesday and includes both ICU and non-ICU patients.
Four more lives were also claimed by the virus, County Public Health confirmed Wednesday. Merced County’s total fatalities traced back to COVID-19 increased to 252 with the new deaths. That’s 20 lives reported lost in seven days.
One of the most recent deaths was among a younger age bracket of age 18-34, according to County Public Health. Another of the deceased was between age 35-49 and the other two were at least 65-years-old.
Three of the most recently deceased were men and one was a woman, the county reported. Two of the individuals had underlying health conditions prior to their deaths. The health status of the other two is unknown at this time.
A single-day fatality record was set in California on Wednesday with 432 new deaths. The prior record was on Dec. 16 with 379 fatalities.
San Joaquin Valley without ICU beds
Merced County’s absence of ICU beds is what the latest round of state-mandated shutdown orders aims to avoid, as rampant COVID-19 cases threaten to overwhelm hospitals with an onslaught of hospitalizations. Across the 12-county San Joaquin Valley region, which includes Merced, ICU capacity has remained at 0% for several days.
California began November with just over 2,500 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, including 700 in intensive care units. That has since risen to more than 20,000 hospitalized due to the virus and almost 4,400 in intensive care.
The lack of significant improvement caused the stay-at-home orders affecting most of the state to be extended in the Valley and Southern California until ICU availability rises to at least 15%. Until then, bars and wineries must stay closed and restaurants must remain limited to take-out only, as well as limitations in other business sectors.
But the pandemic has showed little sign of slowing throughout California, with the exception of the Northern California region, over the past two months. About 550,000 coronavirus infections — roughly a quarter of the state’s total caseload since the beginning of the pandemic — were confirmed within the past 14 days.
Meanwhile, the first confirmed case of the new COVID-19 variant was reported in Southern California on Wednesday. The mutated strain, thought to have originated in the United Kingdom, has shown to be more contagious but does not appear to make individuals sicker or increase mortality.
More on latest Merced County COVID-19 numbers
County Public Health confirmed 179 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday. Total positive tests came to 19,245 since the pandemic’s beginning with the additional cases.
Infections considered active rose again by 11 to 3,644. Cases are deemed active if they were laboratory confirmed within the last two weeks. During the past several weeks, active cases have often risen to new heights.
The average percentage of positive tests compared to negative ones during the last seven days rose as well to 12.6%. New daily cases per 100,000 residents improved only slightly to 43.2.
Both of these metrics are used by the state to organize counties into varying levels of reopening tiers. The data points must be brought down to single digits before more Merced County businesses are permitted to reopen.
Merced County and most of the state is currently subject to the strictest tier’s shutdown orders, as well as the stay-at-home orders incurred by thin regional ICU capacity.
Active COVID-19 outbreaks remained unchanged in Merced County on Wednesday at 67.
Locations are added to the outbreak list when at least three cases are tied to a facility within two weeks. Workplaces are removed once no further cases are traced back for the same period.
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 5:37 PM with the headline "Merced County reaches zero available ICU beds, according to latest state COVID-19 data."
