COVID-19 claimed 49 Merced County lives in September. Here are the latest numbers
Merced County finished September with some COVID-19 progress made since the latest surge took off over summer, but the infection data still served as a reminder of the progress yet to be achieved.
A total of 49 Merced County residents died last month due to COVID-19, including 10 who died within the last week. That brings the county’s official death toll to 562 since the pandemic erupted in March 2020.
As expected, coronavirus infections reported on local school campuses also climbed in September as thousands of students returned to classrooms, many for the first time in 18 months. Merced County also saw a rise in the number of pediatric COVID-19 infections last month.
The latest wave of the pandemic has been distinctive in that the percentage of children contracting the disease is significantly higher than before, County Public Health officials told the Sun-Star.
Pediatric cases during those prior waves typically made up 11-13% of total cases. Pediatric cases during this wave have at times surpassed a third of all infections.
The most recently available data shows that pediatric cases fell to about 25% this week from 30% of county-wide infections last week, according to County Public Health numbers released Friday.
Schools, however, make up almost 60% of Merced County’s 39 COVID-19 outbreak locations. That’s up from about 54% of locations last week when the county had more overall outbreaks but fewer schools on the list. A total of 23 school campuses were currently identified as experiencing outbreaks as of Friday.
Merced County Public Health officials have told the Sun-Star that both the significant number of school outbreaks, as well as COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations, are tied to unvaccinated residents.
Vaccination remains the best way to protect not only one’s self from contracting a severe case of the virus but vulnerable children who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated, too, according to local and state public health officials.
Just over 50% of Merced County’s eligible population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Statewide, that percentage is over 78%. County officials have urged unvaccinated residents to get the vaccine to protect themselves, loved ones, and the community.
Information on COVID-19 vaccines can be found on the vaccinatemercedcounty.com website. Information about walk-in clinics or other ways to schedule free COVID-19 vaccinations is available on the state’s website at myturn.ca.gov.
Here are the latest Merced County COVID-19 numbers
While some COVID-19 metrics showed marked improvement from last week’s numbers, pandemic-related hospitalizations remained high in Merced County.
Residents with COVID-19 cases severe enough to be hospitalized rose by seven patients to 40 total as of Thursday, County Public Health’s latest update shows.
Just one intensive care unit bed was free county-wide as of Thursday, according to state data. Merced County’s ICU capacity remained low throughout August and September, frequently hovering below five free beds and at times dipping to zero beds available.
The San Joaquin Valley region, in general, continues to suffer the lowest availability of ICU beds. The 12-county region had 9.8% of all ICU beds free as of Thursday.
Northern California’s 13.5% ICU availability represents the region with the second-lowest percentage of free beds. The Greater Sacramento region has the highest ICU availability at 27.2%.
New COVID-19 cases during the last week numbered 840 in Merced County — an increase from the 829 tallied the week before. The additional cases boosted the county’s total caseload to 40,960.
Cases presumed active are estimated at 1,669, including 423 pediatric cases, indicating progress from last week’s counts of 1,816 and 530, respectively.
Also showing improvement is the county’s daily cases per 100,000 residents, which fell to 31.30. Merced County’s positivity rate decreased to 8.50% as well.
Still, Merced County lags behind California’s overall numbers. The state’s daily cases per 100,000 comes to 15.1 and its positivity rate to 2.8% as of Thursday, underscoring Merced County’s additional progress to be made before the virus returns to a more manageable state.
