Virus: Upbeat report from Co. Health Director
For the second straight week, Tulare County Health and Human Services director Tim Lutz gave an encouraging report when it came to his weekly update on the status of COVID-19 in the county.
“I’m happy to say we’re seeing some positive direction for our metrics,” Lutz said at Tuesday’s Tulare County Board of Supervisors meeting.
Lutz reported there have now been a total of 14,305 COVID-19 cases in Tulare County. There were 696 more cases over the last week, which represented a five percent increase.
That’s the lowest percentage increase in quite some time and “a marked improvement from where we’ve been,” Lutz said.
Tulare County’s R number which projects how fast the virus will spread also was still at .81, Lutz reported on Tuesday. That number means Tulare County’s rate of increase is “likely decreasing” from its current rate. That number also represents the average number of people one infected person would be expected to infect.
“As far as case rates it’s still high compared to May and April but we’ve seen some significant improvement,” Lutz said.
Lutz reported the number of patients at the Porterville Alternate Care Site at the Porterville Developmental Center continues to decline and is now down to five as of Tuesday. Lutz said the facility is accepting patients from Fresno, Kern and Kings Counties if needed.
He added the facility is heading for a soft closing in mid-september, but could stay open or be re-opened if needed.
Lutz also reported 303 patients have been treated with Remdesivir which has been credited with improving the recovery time of COVID-19 patients. Supervisor Dennis Townsend reported 97 patients have been treated with Remdesivir at Sierra View Medical Center.
Lutz also referenced the new colored-tiered system unveiled by Governor Gavin Newsom on
Friday that replaced the state monitoring list. But he noted the purple-tier is just a replacement for the state monitoring list as all those counties — including Tulare County — are in the purple tier, which is the most restrictive category.
The other tiers are red which is still considered to have “substantial” virus spread, orange which has “moderate” virus spread and yellow, which has “minimal” virus spread.
Tulare County reported on Tuesday it has had 18.5 cases per 100,000 over the last seven days. The county also reported its positive testing rate was 13 percent. In order for Tulare County to move into the next least restrictive category, red, it would need to have 7 cases per 100,000 and a positive test rate of 8 percent.
With 14,305 total cases, that’s an increase of 226 cases over the previous day. The number of recoveries also increased, but not enough to prevent an increase of active cases for a second straight day.
The number of people in Tulare County who have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19 is 13,254, an increase of 109 over the previous day. But there was also a significant increase of active cases.
There are now 817 people in Tulare County who have COVID-19, an increase of 109 over the previous day.
The department also reported one more death, bringing the total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in Tulare County to 234. The state model projects Tulare County to have 272 deaths by October 1.
The department did report a significant decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations in Tulare County, down to 49.
As of Tuesday, Sierra View reported it had 9 COVID-19 patients and two patients suspected of having COVID-19. Sierra View has had 38 deaths due to COVID-19.
The hospital reported four of its 10 ICU beds were in use and five of its 20 ventilators were in use. Sierra View reported it has four employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 39 employees who have recovered. The hospital also reported it has had 295 positive tests.
As of Monday, Visalia’s Kaweah Delta Hospital reported it had 36 COVID-19 hospitalizations of which eight were in ICU.
There are 593 confirmed COVID-19 nursing home cases in Tulare County. Tulare County has also spent $5 million in its response to COVID-19.
There have been 2,259 cases in the Porterville area, 145 cases in Terra Bella, 191 cases in Strathmore, 605 cases in Lindsay, 38 cases in foot hillmountain communities, 129 cases in Richgrove, 28 cases in Alpaugh, 268 cases in Pixley, 85 cases in Tipton, 2,191 cases in Tulare, 1,626 cases in Dinuba, 413 cases in Farmersville, 281 cases in Exeter, 251 cases in Woodlake, 292 cases in Cutler, 540 cases in Orosi, 40 cases in Goshen, 76 cases in Traver, 14 cases in the Reedley area and 11 cases in Orange Cove.
In Visalia there have been 1,794 cases in one region, 990 cases in another region and 1,158 cases in a third region.
There have been 68 cases reported as travelrelated, 4,609 cases due to person-to-person contact and 9,628 cases are under investigation.
There have been 1,940 cases ages 0-17, 2,269 cases ages 18-25, 4,120 cases ages 26-40, 4,465 cases ages 41-64 and 1,502 cases ages 65 and older.
There have been 7,937 cases who have been Hispanic, 1,342 have been Caucasian, 233 have been Asian, 55 have been AfricanAmerican, 28 have been Native American, 264 have been multi-race and 4,446 are unknown.
There are 482 people in Tulare County who are under self-quarantine being monitored by public health officials.
Tulare County’s doubling time — the amount of days it would take for cases to double — remained about the same at 136 days, indicating a continued flattening of the curve.
With a population of about 470,000 people, Tulare County has had an overall rate of about 3 cases per 100 residents or 3 percent.