Merced County reports third highest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases
Merced County on Tuesday reported its third highest number of new positive COVID-19 tests since the pandemic’s start.
The county’s three highest single day case increases have all taken place since Dec. 14. Tuesday’s 372 new infections boosted the running case tally to 20,774.
The case increase brought the number of infections considered active to 3,663 — an increase of 21 cases. Infections are deemed active if they were laboratory confirmed within the prior 14 days.
Tuesday also brought the news of two additional COVID-19-related deaths. Fatalities tied to the pandemic now number 266.
One of the deceased was a man and the other a woman, each age 65 or older, according to the Merced County Department of Public Health. Both had underlying health conditions prior to their COVID-19-related deaths.
In the last seven days, 1,708 positive cases and 18 deaths have been confirmed in Merced County.
The string of holidays from Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Years has elicited concern from county and state public health officials.
A correlated uptick in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths has begun about two weeks after every major U.S. holiday this year due to lax COVID-19 precautions during celebratory gatherings.
The series of holidays come amid a case spike that began in much of California during late fall and hasn’t let up throughout winter.
The state’s most recent update to county COVID-19 data reflected the lack of significant improvement in Merced and many other counties.
At 99.6%, a majority of California’s population is still grouped into the most limited reopening tier due to concerning COVID-19 metrics. Just four of the state’s 58 counties are subject to freer business opening rules.
No counties made progress in advancing to a less restrictive tier on Tuesday.
Merced County has moved further away from reopening any time soon. New daily cases per 100,000 residents worsened to an adjusted 52.9 from 43.7 last week. The percentage of positive COVID-19 results compared to overall tests also stayed high at just over 13%.
New daily cases must be brought down to seven or fewer per 100,000 residents and testing positivity must decrease to at least 8% before more local businesses may open.
San Joaquin Valley still at 0% ICU capacity
Another hurdle for Merced and many other counties is improving weak intensive care unit availability. Stay-at-home orders due to low ICU capacity, which close many businesses like bars and wineries, remained in effect across four of the state’s five regions on Tuesday.
The San Joaquin Valley, which includes Merced County, again clocked in at 0% ICU availability. Southern California also remained just as low.
Stay-at-home orders won’t be lifted in impacted regions until ICU capacity rises to 15% or more.
County Public Health reported that 52 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized in Merced County as of Tuesday.
Slightly older state data showed four of the county’s 24 ICU beds were available as of Monday. Recently, Merced County dipped to the worst case scenario of zero ICU beds.
Active local outbreaks were one metric to improve since New Years — but only slightly. Outbreaks have decreased by two locations since Dec. 31, shortening the list to 64.
Workplaces cleared from active outbreak status are: Anberry Transitional Care Merced, N&S Tractor Inc. in Merced, Sierra Cascade Nursery, R.M. Miano Elementary School and Dr. David Baba, Optometrist.
New outbreaks since New Years include: A.V. Thomas Produce, Rancho San Miguel in Livingston and Valley Animal Hospital of Merced.
Workplace locations are considered to have an outbreak when three or more COVID-19 cases are linked to a facility within two weeks. Just one case constitutes an outbreak at skilled nursing facilities because of the high risk setting.
Facilities are struck from the outbreak list when no further cases are traced back to the location for two weeks.
