Virus: County reports 8 more deaths
Tulare County Health and Human Services reported eight more deaths due to COVID-19 on Thursday.
That brings the total number of deaths in Tulare County due to COVID-19 to 161. The state model now projects Tulare County will have 299 deaths by August 15.
The steady increase of cases in Tulare County also continued. The department reported there have now been 6,480 cases in Tulare County, an increase of 148 cases over the 6,332 that was reported on Wednesday.
The county’s R number which projects how fast the virus will spread is at 1.08. That number represents the average number of people that would be infected by one infected person.
California’s R number is actually higher at 1.12, which is a number that’s consider to mean the spread of the virus is to “likely increase” over the current rate.
The number of recoveries also continues to lag behind the number of new cases reported. The department reported the number of people in Tulare County who have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19 is now 3,817, an increase of 68 over the 3,749 that was reported on Wednesday.
But that increase was double the number of 34 increased recoveries for the previous day. The number of active cases in Tulare County is now 2,502.
There are 86 hospitalization due to COVID-19 in Tulare County. Of those 86, seven are in intensive care. The number of confirmed nursing home COVID-19 cases in Tulare County is 528.
There have been 944 cases reported in the Porterville area. Other cities with the highest total of cases in the county are Tulare with 986 cases, Dinuba with 773 cases, Lindsay with 279 cases, Orosi with 268 cases and Earlimart with 284 cases.
In Visalia, there have been 823 cases in one region, 520 cases in another region and 575 cases in a third region.
There have been 69 cases in Strathmore and 49 cases in Terra Bella. There have been 15 cases in foothillmountain communities, 30 cases in Richgrove, 141 cases in Pixley, 24 cases in Tipton, 117 cases in Exeter, 168 cases in Farmersville, 21 cases in Goshen, 68 cases in Woodlake, 36 cases in Traver, 11 cases the Reedley area and 11 cases in Orange Cove.
There have been 68 cases reported at travel-related, 2,167 due to person-toperson contact and 4,245 are being investigated.
There have been 753 cases ages 0-17, 1,007 ages 1825, 1,803 ages 26-40, 2,033 ages 41-64 and 882 ages 65 and older.
There have been 3,129 cases who are Hispanic, 646 have been caucasian, 102 have been Asian, 26 have been African-american, 11 have been Native American, 61 have been multi-race and 2,505 are unknown.
There are 305 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 more than 1.3 cases per 100, or 1.3 percent. The county’s doubling time — the amount of days it would take for cases to double which measures the flattening of the curve of cases — has remained in about the same region and was at 21.9 days as of Wednesday.
As of 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sierra View Medical Center reported it has had 142 positive tests for COVID-19. Sierra View has had 23 deaths due to COVID-19.
Sierra View reported a decline in hospitalizations due to COVID-19 to 11. The hospital reported three of 10 ICU beds were in use. Sierra View also reported one of its 18 ventilators were in use.
In addition, Sierra View reported it has 11 employees who have now tested positive for COVID-19 and 14 employees who have recovered.
PORTERVILLE HEALTH OFFICE CLOSED
The Human Services Branch of the Tulare County Health & Human Services Agency (HHSA) confirmed one public employee at the Porterville District Office, located at 1055 West Henderson Avenue, Suite 3, in Porterville, 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.
It’s not unexpected employees may become ill as COVID-19 continues to spread in throughout the county. 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 non-essential employees to work from home, maintaining sufficient social distancing in the workplace, and consistently using excellent hygiene and cleaning practices.
With the Porterville District Office expected to be temporarily closed, those needing services through Tulareworks can contact the call center at 1-800540-6880.
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 the department can’t release any other information 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.
To reduce and stop the spread of COVID-19 in Tulare County, local public health officials strongly urge everyone to practice both social distancing of six feet or more between persons. Residents should always wear a face mask or covering in public settings. More importantly, officials urge residents to not participate in social gatherings of any kind, as a large number of the COVID-19 cases in Tulare County stem from contact transmission through gatherings that occurred beyond a single household.
For more information about COVID-19, visit www.tchhsa.org/ncov and www.covid19.tularecounty. ca.gov