COVID Monday update: Three new deaths, 219 cases confirmed through weekend

Merced County Department of Health confirmed three new deaths from COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the county’s death toll to 442.

The deaths included two men and a woman who has underlying heath conditions. One was between age 50 and 64, the others were age 65 or older.

According to the department’s data, 219 new cases were reported Monday. The last time the county reported was Friday.

There have been 30,906 total confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic and around 649 are active.

Merced County remains in purple tier of the state’s COVID rules -- the strictest level. To advance from the purple tier into the red tier, counties need to meet two key measures for two consecutive weeks:

• Have an average of fewer than 10 new confirmed coronavirus cases each day as a rate per 100,000 residents over the course of a week, and
• Achieve a rate of less than 8% of residents who are tested for coronavirus coming back with positive results.

The state will announce Tuesday whether Merced County can advance to the red tier.

Merced County’s daily new-case rate Monday was 11.8 per 100,000 residents -- and increase of 3.8 since Friday. The county’s positivity rate as of Monday was 4.3%. -- the same rate of tests that returned positive since Friday.

Explore these interactive charts and maps tracking the latest data on COVID-19 cases and deaths in Merced County and neighboring counties in California’s central San Joaquin Valley as of Wednesday, March 31, 2021.

Merced County

Valleywide

This story was originally published April 5, 2021 at 5:00 PM.