Merced County remains in purple tier — one of the last counties behind on COVID rules
Merced County has again not met the standards to exit the most restrictive colored tier, one that has many businesses shuttered.
The case rate for the week ending March 27 was 11.7 per 100,000 residents, according to the numbers from the state health officials. The county needed to remain under 10 per 100,000 residents to move from purple to red tier.
The county’s rate actually went up from last week’s 9.2 so Merced County remains in purple. Elsewhere in the Valley on Tuesday, Tulare County advanced to orange tier — the second least restrictive tier. Madera and Fresno counties remain in the red tier.
A backlog on tests from last week caused an inaccurate swelling of the numbers in Merced County, according to Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp, director of public health.
The 178 cases backed up at a lab came in for the last tally and were not spread out into previous weeks of data. That’s an unfair comparison, she said.
“You can’t compare this ballooned number to a smaller number,” she said. “What the state is doing is comparing apples to coconuts.”
The county has submitted a letter to state health officials to get them to correct the comparison, Nanyonjo-Kemp said. It’s unclear when the state will return with a response.
“It’s not fair to the community, especially with the amount of effort in place,” she said.
Merced County has lagged behind others in the San Joaquin Valley and the state. The only other county in the state, as of Tuesday, left in purple tier, is Inyo County.
There have been 30,906 cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic began, according to the county, and 442 deaths.
June 15 deadline
The state passed the 4 million vaccine mark on Tuesday, which health officials have said triggers a relaxed threshold for moving tiers red to orange and orange to yellow. The purple-to-red metric remains at 10 cases per 100,000.
But, the state also said on Tuesday the economy will open back up fully on June 15 if the vaccine supply can cover every person 16 or older who wants one in California and if hospitalization rates are stable and low, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“We can now begin planning for our lives post-pandemic,” he said. “We will need to remain vigilant, and continue the practices that got us here — wearing masks and getting vaccinated — but the light at the end of this tunnel has never been brighter.”
Officials said “common sense” health measures will remain in place even if restrictions on businesses are lifted. Those measure include encouraging people to get vaccinated and mandating masks.
The state will continue to testing and contact tracing of the virus, officials said.
This story was originally published April 6, 2021 at 11:34 AM.
