COVID infections falling, but hospitalizations, deaths persist in Merced County
Coronavirus infections fell again this week in Merced County, but the region remained behind the progress seen across other parts of California with higher vaccination rates.
Total active cases as of Thursday fell by almost 200 to 1,479 over the last week, according to County Public Health’s latest numbers released on Friday. The outbreak list also decreased by three locations to 36 total.
Still, the county’s case positivity rate and the number of new daily cases per 100,000 residents grew over the last week to 8.80% and 32.10, respectively. California as a whole averaged 2.5% positivity 13.1 new daily cases as of Thursday.
Even local data that’s moving in a positive direction is complicated by mitigating factors.
For example, despite the overall decrease in total outbreaks, school campuses experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks again grew in number.
Elementary, middle, and high school outbreaks tallied 25 on Thursday, bringing campus outbreaks to 67% of all county-wide outbreaks — a notable increase from 59% the week before.
Pediatric cases continued to represent a high portion of the county’s total caseload at about 25% of all infections. Cases among residents age 17 or younger during prior waves of the pandemic typically accounted for 11-13% of total cases, according to County Public Health officials.
Low vaccination tied to Merced County’s persisting COVID-19 struggle
Local public health officials say the significant number of school outbreaks and pediatric infections are related to the county’s low percentage of COVID-19 vaccinations.
About half of all eligible Merced County residents have been fully vaccinated against the virus — about the same as last week. Statewide, that number has reached nearly 80%.
A lower percentage of community vaccinations facilitates transmission of the virus and a higher number of severe COVID-19 cases that lead to hospitalization or death. That vulnerability is reflected in Merced County’s COVID-19 data.
Over the first seven days of October, eight Merced County residents died due to COVID-19. The county’s death toll since the start of the pandemic stands at 570 as of Thursday. September alone accounted for 49 of those deaths.
Plus, following weeks at a critical low of less than 10%, San Joaquin Valley as a region leaped to over 21% intensive care unit capacity as of Thursday. The boost allowed the 12-county region to shake surge capacity orders that were in place throughout September due to the low availability of beds.
But Merced County’s ICU capacity remained strained with zero beds available as of Thursday, according to state data.
No more than four total ICU beds have been free in Merced County since the start of October, with most days showing only one or two beds available, the data shows.
Also underscoring the state of Merced County’s COVID-19 hospitalizations is the 10-patient increase since last week. Fifty residents were hospitalized for severe cases of the virus as of Thursday. State data shows that 15 of those patients were being treated in the ICU.
