Merced County reports four new COVID-19 deaths, 218 new cases
The Merced County Department of Health reported four new COVID-19 deaths Thursday, increasing the total number of residents who’ve died from the virus to 320.
There have been 24 deaths reported in the past week, and 218 new cases of COVID-19 were reported Thursday. That brings the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Merced County to 22,788 since the pandemic began.
Of the latest deaths, two were men and two were women. Three of them were 65 years or older and one was between 50 and 64 years old. Two of them were known to have underlying health conditions. It was unknown whether the other two had underlying health conditions.
There are currently 3,649 cases considered active. The number of residents hospitalized in Merced County due to the virus dropped from 60 on Wednesday to 54 on Thursday.
The state on Wednesday reported there were 19 Merced County patients in ICU beds, with one bed available.
Merced County currently has a positivity rate of 14.8 percent, meaning the level of people among those who’ve been tested who had a positive result.
Statewide, California Department of Health on Thursday reported 19,537 confirmed COVID-19 patients in hospital beds including 4,670 requiring intensive care.
Those are still exceptionally high totals — more than 25% of all licensed hospital beds in the state are occupied by coronavirus patients — but Wednesday marked the first day below 20,000 since Dec. 28. Both totals have trended downward for close to two weeks.
California vaccine rollout slow
While California’s coronavirus rates continue to show signs of improvement from a dire winter surge, health officials remain concerned by the state’s slow rollout of vaccine.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Public Health last week began directing counties to start vaccinating members of the general public ages 65 and older, spurred by recommendations from the federal government and the Trump administration’s promise to release a reserve stockpile of vaccine doses.
That hit a snag when it turned out that that federal stockpile didn’t exist, as officials acknowledged late last week. Data on COVID-19 vaccine distribution released weekly by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show all U.S. states and territories slated to receive exactly the same allocations of both Pfizer and Moderna doses next week as they did this week.
California Department of Public Health classifies the state’s 58 counties into six vaccination regions. Region five includes Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare, where 52,432 doses have been administered.
Around the Valley
Fresno County reported 52 deaths and 391 new cases on Thursday.
Tulare County reported 14 more deaths on Thursday, which brings the total to 529 since the pandemic began. There were also 355 new cases on Thursday, when the total reached 42,541.
Kings County added a dozen new fatal cases on Thursday, bringing the total to 160. Another 115 new cases leaves the total at 19,703.
Madera County did not report any new deaths but added 107 new cases, according to county health officials. That totals 151 and 13,498, respectively.
Mariposa County did not report changes to its four deaths and 346 cases.
Stanislaus County reported seven new deaths and 271 cases on Thursday. That brings the totals for Stanislaus County to 43,392 cases and 773 deaths.
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 6:21 PM.
