Gradual increase in active cases in Tulare County

There has been a gradual increase in active COVID-19 cases in Tulare County over the last few days.

The number of active cases in Tulare County had fallen below 500, but have now gone back up to above 500.

Tulare County Health and Human Services reported on Monday there are 506 people in Tulare County who now have COVID-19. Since March 11, there have been 16,071 COVID-19 cases in Tulare County.

There have been 15,302 people in Tulare County who have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19.

Tulare County Health and Human Services reported no new deaths on Monday, leaving the number of deaths due to COVID-19 in Tulare County at 263. The state model projects Tulare County to have 271 deaths by October 28.

Tulare County’s R number continues to remain steady at .88, indicating the rate of increase of cases is “likely decreasing,” meaning the increase is expected to be lower than the current rate. The number .88 represents the average number of people one infected person would infect.

As far as Tulare County moving from the most restrictive category — purple — to the next least restrictive category — red — the county has met of the two standards for that to happen.

Tulare County’s positive test rate of 7.7 percent has fallen below the state standard of 8 percent to move into the red category.

As of Friday Tulare County had a rate of 9.5 cases per 100,000 residents over a 7-day period. As of Monday night,

Tulare County Health and Human Services hadn’t provided an update to that number in their daily situational report.

A clearer picture of where Tulare County is as far as moving into the red category should come today as the state updates the status of counties every Tuesday.

On the first Tuesday Tulare County meets the positive test and case rate standards, it would then have to maintain those standards for two weeks.

Once that happens restaurants could open indoors at 25 percent capacity, churches could open indoors at 25 percent capacity, movie theaters could open at a limited capacity and schools could open to all students.

As far as local schools that have applied for waivers for in-person instruction for grades K-6, St. Anne’s, Zion Lutheran and Saucelito and Hope Elementary Schools have all received approval to do so.

St. Anne’s and Zion Lutheran have reopened and Hope reopened to grades K-3 on Monday with the plan to eventually reopen through the sixth grade. Saucelito plans to reopen on October 5.

Springville Elementary School has also applied for a waiver and that waiver is currently being reviewed.

On Monday, the health department reported the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Tulare County was 33.

Sierra View reported it had six COVID-19 hospitalizations and eight patients suspected of COVID-19. Sierra View has had 45 deaths due to COVID-19.

Sierra View reported five of its 10 ICU beds

were in use and five of its 19 ventilators were in use. Sierra View reported it now has three employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 45 employees who have

recovered. Sierra View has had a total of 336 positive tests.

Kaweah Delta reported it had 26 COVID-19 hospitalizations of which six were in ICU.

There have been 68 cases reported as travel-related, 5,390 due to person-to-person contact and 10,613 cases are

under investigation.

There have been 2,252 cases ages 0-17, 2,558 cases have been ages 18-25, 4,627 cases have been ages 26-40, 4,996 cases have been ages 41-64 and 1,627 cases have been ages 65 and older.

There have been 9,150 cases who have been Hispanic, 1,535 who have been Caucasian, 283

who have been Asian, 70 who have been African American, 48 have been Native American, 304 have been multi-race and 4,681 are unknown.

There are 382 people in Tulare County who are under self-quarantine and being monitored by public health officials.

In its last update, health officials reported of 256 deaths, 200 were ages 65 and older, 52 were ages 41-64 and four were below the age of 41. The department reported there were 119 deaths related to nursing homes and 137 deaths not related to nursing homes.

Since March 11 there have been 2,571 cases in the Porterville area, 161 cases in Terra Bella, 224 cases in Strathmore, 659 cases in Lindsay, 43 cases in foothill-mountain communities, 137 cases in Richgrove, 28 cases in Alpaugh, 282 cases in Pixley, 89 cases in Tipton, 651 cases in Earlimart, 2,575 cases in Tulare, 1,793 cases in Dinuba, 478 cases in Farmersville, 313 cases in Exeter, 40 cases in Goshen, 81 cases in Traver, 281 cases in Woodlake, 319 cases in Cutler, 576 cases in Orosi, 14 cases in the Reedley area and 11 cases in Orange Cove.

In Visalia there has been 2,017 cases in one region, 1,110 cases in another region and 1,319 cases in a third region.

Tulare County has had a rate of a little more than 3.4 cases per 100 residents or 3.4 percent.