Number of active cases continues to decrease

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Tulare County continues to decrease.

Tulare County Health and Human Services reported on Thursday there are now 1,290 people in the county who have COVID-19. That’s a slight decrease of 28 from the 1,318 that was reported on Wednesday.

Another large increase in the number of recoveries continued to lead to the decline in active cases. There are now 10,352 people in Tulare County who have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19, an increase of 232 over the previous day.

The number of recoveries slightly outpaced the number of new cases that were reported on Thursday. The department reported there have been a total of 11,847 people who have had COVID-19 in Tulare County, an increase of 204 over the previous day.

An encouraging sign continues to be Tulare County’s R number which projects how fast the rate of the virus’ spread will be continues to fall and is down to .93. That number still reflects Tulare County’s rate of increased cases is “likely stable,” meaning the rate of increase is expected to continue at its current rate.

The number .93 also means the average number of people one infected person is expected to infect is less than one.

After reporting seven more deaths on Wednesday, the department reported no deaths on Thursday, leaving the total of deaths in Tulare County due to COVID-19 at 205.

Tulare County has had 32 deaths over the last two weeks. The state model projects Tulare County to have 286 deaths by September 12.

The department gives a weekly demographic report on deaths in Tulare County. As of Monday when the county had 196 deaths, 112 were related to nursing homes and 84 weren’t related to nursing homes.

While the county didn’t report any deaths on Thursday, Sierra View Medical Center has reported deaths in recent days and reported it has now had 33 deaths due to COVID-19.

In its latest report, the department reported there are 98 COVID-19 hospitalizations in Tulare County. Another encouraging sign is that number could be going down based on data released by Visalia’s Kaweah Delta Hospital.

As of Wednesday, Kaweah Delta reported its number of COVID-19 hospitalizations had dropped to 61. the hospital reported it now has 72 employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 231 who have recovered.

Kaweah Delta reported four of its 55 ventilators were in use. The hospital reported it has had a total of 3,284 positive tests.

There had been three deaths under the age of 41, 35 deaths between the ages of 41-64 and158 deaths ages 65 and older.

As of Thursday, Sierra View reported it had 24 COVID-19 hospitalizations and four patients suspected of COVID-19.

The hospital reported it now has six employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 33 employees who have recovered. Sierra View reported it has had a total of 257 positive tests.

Sierra View reported seven of its 10 ICU beds. As far as ICU beds, the department reported Tulare County is now well above the state threshold of 20 percent as 32.7 percent of its ICU beds are now available. Sierra View also reported seven of its 23 ventilators were in use.

The department also reported there are 577 confirmed COVID-19 patients at nursing homes in Tulare County.

There have been 1,910 cases in the Porterville area, 105 cases in Terra Bella, 160 cases in Strathmore, 506 cases in Lindsay, 91 cases in Richgrove, 30 cases on foothill-mountain communities, 518 cases in Earlimart, 239 cases in Pixley, 71 cases in Tipton, 1,749 cases in Tulare, 1,366 cases in Dinuba, 219 cases in Exeter, 38 cases in Goshen, 63 cases in Traver, 169 cases in Woodlake, 249 cases in Cutler, 464 cases in Orosi, 11 cases in the Reedley area, 11 cases in Orange Cove, 338 cases in Farmersville and 131 cases in Ivanhoe.

There have been 1,461 cases in one region of Visalia, 845 cases in another region of Visalia and 965 cases in a third region of Visalia.

There have been 68 cases reported as travel-related, 3,930 cases due to person-to-person contact and 7,849 cases are under investigation.

There have been 1,543 cases ages 0-17, 1,875 cases ages 18-25, 3,400 cases ages 26-40, 3,703 cases ages 41-64 and 1,317 cases ages 65 and older.

The department reported 6,579 cases have been Hispanic, 1,122 have been Caucasian, 162 have been Asian, 46 have been Africanamerican, 18 have been Native American, 185 have been multi-race and 3,735 are unknown.

There are 303 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 a rate of cases of about 2.48 per 100,000 residents or 2.48 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 — has remained in about the same range in recent days and was at 38 days as of Wednesday.