Cases continue to steadily rise: Lindsay office closed

The steady rise of COVID-19 cases in Tulare County continues.

Tulare County Health and Human Services reported on Tuesday there have been 6,209 COVID-19 cases in the county.

That’s an increase of 267 cases over the 5,942 that was reported on Monday. It should be noted though Tuesday is normally the highest increase of cases for the week because that’s when the processing of cases from the weekend is completed.

Tulare County’s R-eff value, the state model that measures how fast the virus is spreading, declined slightly on Tuesday from Monday, down to 1.07 from 1.09. That still indicates though COVID-19 is expected to continue to increase in the county at its current rate.

The county also reported one more death on Tuesday, bringing the total number of deaths in Tulare County due to COVID-19 to 153. The state model projects Tulare County to have 293 deaths by August 13.

The number of increased recoveries continues to lag behind the number of new cases reported. The county reported there have been 3,749 people in Tulare County who have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19. That’s is only an increase of 13 over the 3,736 that was reported on Monday.

So there was also a huge increase in the number of active cases in Tulare County. The county reported on Tuesday there were 2,304 active cases, an increase of 250 over the 2,054 that was reported on Monday.

The county’s positive test rate has also increased significantly and is now up to 13.9 percent. The number of hospitalizations in Tulare County is also back on the rise and is now up to 86. Of those 86, 10 are in intensive care.

There are 528 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Tulare County nursing homes.

The number of cases in the Porterville area has now exceeded 900 and is up to 913. The other hardest hit communities in the county are Tulare with 940 cases, Dinuba with 749 cases,

Lindsay with 275 cases, Earlimart with 268 cases, Orosi with 260 cases, Farmersville with 156 cases and Pixley with 138 cases.

In Visalia there have been 788 cases in one region, 505 cases in another region and 542 cases in a third region.

There have been 48 cases in Terra Bella, 68 cases in Strathmore, 25 cases in Richgrove, 12 cases in foothill-mountain communities, 20 cases in Tipton, 103 cases in Exeter, 71 cases in Goshen, 36 cases in Traver, 63 cases in Woodlake, 11 cases in the Reedley area and 11 cases in Orange Cove.

There have been 68 cases reported as travelrelated, 2,097 cases due to person-to-person contact and 4,044 cases are under investigation.

There have been 721 cases ages 0-17, 962 cases ages 18-25, 1,718 cases ages 26-40, 1,948 cases ages 41-64 and 856 cases ages 65 and older.

2,963 cases have been Hispanic, 624 have been caucasian, 99 have been Asian, 26 have been African-american, 11 have been Native American,

61 have been multirace and 2,425 are unknown.

There are 251 people in Tulare County who are under self-quarantine and being monitored by public health officials.

With a population of about 470,000 people, Tulare County has had about 1.24 cases per 100 residents or 1.24 percent.

Tulare County’s doubling time — the amount of days it would take for cases to double which measures how flat the curve of cases is — remained about the same at 22.2 days.

As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sierra View Medical Center reported it has had 133 positive tests for COVID-19. The breakdown by age is 1 between the ages of -19, 8 between the ages of 20-29, 24 between the ages of 30-39, 13, between the ages of 40-49, 31 between the ages of 50-59, 21 between the ages of 60-69, 19 between the ages of 70-79, 12 between the ages of 8089 and four above the age of 90.

Sierra View had had 23 deaths due to COVID-19. Sierra View now has 11 employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 13 employees who have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19.

Five of 10 ICU beds and three of 18 ventilators are in use at Sierra View.

LINDSAY OFFICE CLOSED

The Human Services Branch of the Tulare County Health & Human Services Agency confirmed on Tuesday one public employee at the Lindsay District Office, located at 900 Sequoia Avenue in Lindsay, has tested positive for the coronavirus. The employee began to show symptoms and notified a supervisor.

The County has instructed all employees during this time they shouldn’t come to work if they show any symptoms of illness. The Agency has closed the location for cleaning and is notifying all members of its workforce with whom the infected employee may have had contact. The Agency had begun to limit the number of employees working at each of its sites in March, which has limited exposure to other County employees. Additionally, public access to this office has remained closed since March 23.

This is the second time the Lindsay District Office location has closed due to COVID-19. On April 3, the location fully closed because an employee tested positive. The office was thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, allowing employees to return to work on April 30, following proper protocols.

It’s not unexpected employees may become ill as COVID-19 continues spreading throughout the community. The HHSA has protocols in place to address this and similar situations involving employees who become ill. These protocols include: asking employees to stay home if they show any symptoms, reporting any symptoms that develop during working hours, asking nonessential employees to work from home, maintaining sufficient social distancing in the workplace, and consistently using extensive hygiene and cleaning practices.

With the Lindsay District Office expected to be temporarily closed, those needing services through Tulareworks can contact the call center at 1-800-540-6880.

The Tulare County Health & Human Services Agency is diligent about the protection of patient privacy, in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, no other information can be released about the affected employee. The information released about the positive COVID-19 cases in Tulare County is carefully curated to provide useful information to community members, while also excluding information that would lead to the identification of affected persons. This is a protection provided by law that’s extended to everyone.

For more information about COVID-19, visit www.tchhsa.org/ ncov and www.covid19.tularecounty.ca.gov