Virus update: numbers continue to drop
The number of active COVID-19 cases in Tulare County declined for a second straight day on Thursday.
Tulare County Health and Human Services reported on Thursday there are now 674 people in Tulare County who have COVID-19. That’s a decrease of 23 from the previous day and down from 801 earlier in the week.
The weekly report on the county’s ability to move into the next least restrictive colored-tier — red — which would enable more sectors to open won’t be officially updated until next week. Tulare County is in the most restrictive tier, purple.
In the latest update, Tulare County has a 13 percent positive test rate and a case rate of 18.5 per 100,000 over a seven-day period. To move into the red tier, the county would need to reduce its positive test rate to 8 percent and its case rate to 7 per 100,000.
In order for schools who have applied for a waiver to re-open for grades PK-6, the case rate would have to come down to 14 per 100,000. But Tulare County is inching closer to that standard as it reported on Thursday a rate of 17.7 cases per 100,000 over a seven-day period.
The department reported there has now been a total of 14,552 COVID-19 cases in Tulare County, an increase of 110 over the previous day.
But the number of recoveries also continues to increase. The number of people in Tulare County who have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19 is now 13,635, an increase of 130 over the previous day.
The department did report three more deaths on Thursday, bringing the total of deaths in Tulare County due to COVID-19 to 243. The state model projects Tulare County to have 278 deaths by October 3.
Tulare County’s R number which projects how fast the virus will spread did go up slightly from .81 to .85. But that’s still in the “likely decreasing” category, meaning the increased rate of cases is expected to be lower than the current rate. The number .85 also represents the average number of people one infected person is expected to infect.
The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Tulare County remained the same at 50. As of Wednesday, Sierra View Medical Center reported it had 11 COVID-19 hospitalizations and one patient suspected of having COVID-19.
Sierra View has had 40 deaths due to COVID-19. Sierra View reported four of its 10 ICU beds and three of its 20 ventilators were in use.
The hospital reported it has five employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 39 employees who have recovered. Sierra View also reported it has had a total of 299 positive tests.
Visalia’s Kaweah Delta Hospital reported on Thursday it has 37 COVID-19 hospitalizations of which six are in ICU.
There are 595 confirmed COVID-19 nursing home cases in Tulare County.
There have been 2,304 cases in the Porterville area, 148 cases in Terra Bella, 191 cases in Strathmore, 614 cases in Lindsay, 40 cases in foothillmountain communities, `130 cases in Richgrove, 599 cases in Earlimart, 28 cases in Alpaugh, 269 cases in Pixley, 85 cases in Tipton, 2,237 cases in Tulare, 1,646 cases in Dinuba, 422 cases in Farmersville, 290 cases in Exeter, 254 cases in Woodlake, 292 cases in Cutler, 40 cases in Goshen, 78 cases in Traver, 14 cases in the Reedley area, 11 cases in Orange Cove and 544 cases in Orosi.
In the Visalia area there have been 1,838 cases in one region, 1,012 cases in another region and 1,175 cases in a third region.
There have been 68 cases reported as travelrelated, 4746 cases due to person-to-person contact and 9,738 cases are under investigation.
There have been 1,980 cases ages 0-17, 2,302 cases ages 18-25, 4,206 cases ages 26-40, 4,534 cases ages 41-64 and 1,522 cases ages 65 and older.
There have been 8,127 cases who have been Hispanic, 1,372 have been Caucasian, 241 have been Asian, 56 have been African-american, 29 have been Native American, 268 have been multi-race and 4,459 are unknown.
There are 480 people in Tulare County who are under self- quarantine and being monitored by public health officials.
Tulare County’s doubling time — the amount of days it would take for cases to double — has remained about the same at 133.1 days, indicating a continued flattening of the curve.
With a population of about 470,000 people, Tulare County has an overall rate of almost 3.1 cases per 100 residents or nearly 3.1 percent.
TULAREWORKS OFFICE CLOSED
The Human Services Branch of the Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency confirmed on Thursday one public employee at the Visalia Tulareworks District Office, located at 1845 N. Dinuba Blvd. in Visalia, 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 potential 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 been closed since March 23.
This is the second time the Visalia District Office location has closed due to COVID-19. On June 17, the location fully closed because an employee tested positive. The office was thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, allowing employees to return to work 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 non-essential employees to work from home, maintaining sufficient social distancing in the workplace, and consistently using extensive hygiene and cleaning practices.
With the Visalia District Office expected to be temporarily closed, those needing services can contact the call center at 1-800-540-6880.
The Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency is diligent about the protection of patient privacy, in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and for this reason 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.