Why did Merced County move to red tier sooner than expected? New ‘equity metric’ helped
Merced County’s increased reopening took place one week earlier than initially projected by county officials due to a recently implemented equity metric that is taken into account by the state, County Public Health confirmed to the Sun-Star in an email.
The equity metric allows counties like Merced that were subject to the most limited reopening parameters to accelerate toward the next tier — if case rates are declining and testing positivity for disproportionately affected communities meets certain thresholds.
The equity component is intended to take into account disparities affecting certain communities like low-income, Black, Latino and Pacific Islander people, as well as and essential workers. These groups have been disproportionately impacted by higher COVID-19 rates of infection, hospitalizations and deaths.
With the new metric, counties with lower disparities in positivity rates will be able to advance quicker than those with high disparities.
In Merced County, 70% of all COVID-19 cases have been within the Hispanic community, according to County Public Health. The most recently available U.S. Census Bureau data puts the county’s percentage of Hispanic or Latino residents at 61%.
Advancing out of the strictest reopening tier on Tuesday might allow Merced County schools to open for in-person instruction in two weeks, if the county’s COVID-19 data continues to show declining cases.
As of Wednesday, many of Merced County’s school districts were drawing up reopening plans, Merced County Office of Education media and Communications Manager Nathan Quevedo told the Sun-Star. Plans must first be approved by respective school boards to become official.
Most schools are tentatively planning to open their doors to students in late October or early November, according to MCOE’s website.
On Wednesday, an additional 21 Merced County residents tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the Merced County Department of Public Health reported.
No new pandemic-related deaths were reported. To date, 149 county residents have died as a result of contracting COVID-19.
With Wednesday’s new infections, a total of 9,111 individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
Cases presumed active, however, decreased by 16 to 283 on Wednesday. The active case tally is an estimate based on the number of residents who test positive for COVID-19 within the past two weeks.
Also declining slightly was Merced County’s testing positivity, which shows the percentage of all residents’ tested for coronavirus in the last week whose results return positive. The most recently available data puts Merced County at 3.7%.
Lower testing positivity and other local data qualifies counties for increased stages of reopening. On Tuesday, Merced County was given the state-approved green light to move from the strictest of economic restrictions to the second most stringent.
More on COVID-19
Another indicator of the improving state of COVID-19 locally was a significant decrease in the number of residents currently hospitalized on account of the virus.
Current patients dropped from 38 on Tuesday to 29 Wednesday. Just five individuals are hospitalized within the county, while the majority are being cared for at outside facilities.
The number of residents ever hospitalized due to coronavirus remains at 690.
The list of active COVID-19 outbreaks also held steady on Wednesday at 10. In order to be removed from the list, a workplace location must go two weeks without any additional cases being tied to it.
As of Wednesday, 56,851 COVID-19 tests have been conducted locally. Of those, 16.04% have returned positive.
This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 6:32 PM.
