COVID hospitalizations, ICU stays continue to improve for Merced County, Valley
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As the daily COVID-19 case rates continue to decline in Merced County, the hospitalization data continues to improve.
Merced County Department of Public Health reported on Wednesday there are 23 residents currently hospitalized locally. That’s a decrease from 30 residents reported on Tuesday.
There were 35 Merced County residents hospitalized a month ago and 57 hospitalized on Jan. 3.
The number of patients hospitalized in the ICU unit have decreased as well. There are currently four ICU patients in Merced County on Wednesday. There were eight ICU patents a week ago and 17 patients in the ICU a month ago.
There were eight ICU beds available in Merced County as of Tuesday, according to the state.
Deaths, new infections continue
Merced County on Wednesday reported two new COVID-19 related deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 407 since the start of the pandemic.
Of the latest deaths, one was a man and one was a woman. One was over the age of 65 and one was between the ages of 50 and 64. At least one of the deceased was known to have underlying health conditions.
Merced County reported 69 new COVID-19 related cases Wednesday, raising the total of residents infected by the virus to 29,264 since the start of the pandemic.
There are currently 958 Merced County residents estimated to be actively infected — a drop of 354 cases in the past week.
Merced County currently has a positivity rate of 5.7 percent, meaning the level of people among those tested who had a positive result.
The daily case rate dropped to 14.5 infections per 100,000 residents. The rate was 19.4 per 100,000 a week ago.
California approaching 10 million shots given
With the weekly vaccination supply increasing, a third vaccine on the way, California is approaching 10 million total doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered.
The California Department of Public Health on its online vaccine data tracker reported Wednesday providers have administered 9,458,722 doses, an increase of 144,923 over Tuesday’s total. The total had increased by an average of more than 200,000 a day over the preceding seven days.
About 21% of the state’s adult population are at least partially vaccinated and 10% of adults are fully vaccinated.
In Merced County, 5.1% of the population of 287,420 have been vaccinated, according to data provided by Merced County Department of Public Health.
The CDC on Tuesday posted states’ allocations for Pfizer and Moderna vaccine doses to be delivered next week. California will get about 1.45 million shots from those two drugmakers — 860,000 first doses and about 594,000 second doses.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said during a Wednesday news conference in Long Beach that the state will get 21,000 doses of the new Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine this week and about 320,000 next week.
Around the Valley
Fresno County: 108 new cases, 95,785 to date; no additional fatalities were reported as of late afternoon Tuesday, leaving the death toll at 1,451.
Kings County: No update was issued Wednesday because of a system update. On Tuesday, the county reported 22,091 cases to date, including 220 deaths. Of those, more than 7,200 cases and 17 deaths were among inmates at state prisons in Avenal and Corcoran.
Madera County: 20 new cases, 15,472 to date; no additional deaths, 214 to date.
Mariposa County: No new cases, 395 to date; no additional deaths, seven to date.
Tulare County: 28 new cases, 48,114 to date; two additional deaths, 768 to date.
Stanislaus County: 88 new cases, 50,727 to date; three additional deaths, 953 to date.
The Sacramento Bee and Fresno Bee contributed to this story.
This story was originally published March 3, 2021 at 6:27 PM.
