Merced County reports three new COVID deaths, total fatalities rise to 428 Thursday

The Merced County Department of Public Health reported three new COVID-19 related deaths on Thursday afternoon, bringing the total number of fatalities to 428 since the start of the pandemic.

Of the new deaths, all three were men with two between the ages of 35 and 49 and one over the age of 65. All three men were known to have underlying health conditions.

Merced County also reported 60 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 30,087 cases since the start of the pandemic.

There are 763 residents residents estimated to be actively infected with the virus, a decrease of 30 from Monday.

The number of residents hospitalized in Merced County due to the coronavirus is 21, with seven people in the ICU.

According to the state, Merced County hospitals had 10 ICU beds remaining as of Tuesday.

Merced County has a positivity rate of 6.2%, indicating the level of people among those tested who had a positive result. That’s an increase from 5.4% on Monday.

In other central San Joaquin Valley counties:

Kings County: 17 new cases, 22,441 to date; one additional death, 237 fatalities to date. More than 7,200 cases, and 17 deaths, have been among inmates at state prisons in Avenal and Corcoran.

Madera County: 32 new cases, 15,773 to date; no additional deaths, 226 fatalities to date. Almost 2,500 of the Madera County cases have been among inmates at state prisons near Chowchilla.

Mariposa County: No new cases, 400 to date; no additional deaths, seven fatalities to date.

Fresno County: 89 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, pushing the total number of people who have had COVID-19 over the past year to 97,727. The county also reported three additional deaths, bringing the total lives lost to date to 1,546.

Tulare County: 49 new cases, 48,740 to date; three additional deaths, 791 fatalities to date.

Valleywide, more than 215,000 people have had COVID-19 at some point over the past 12 months since the first local cases were identified. Of those, 3,235 people have died.

This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 6:34 PM.