Red tier move likely to be delayed

Playgrounds can now open

BY CHARLES WHISNAND cwhisnand@portervillerecorder.com The Tulare County Board of Supervisors was seeing red on Tuesday — but not the kind of red they wanted to see.

During his weekly presentation of the status of COVID-19 in the county at Tuesday’s board meeting, Tulare County Health and Human Services Director Tim Lutz said the state is changing the rules again which will virtually assure the county’s advancement into the red tier is delayed.

Tulare County is now in the purple tier — the most restrictive tier. Originally Tulare County only had to meet two standards when it came to its positive test rate and case rate to move into the next least restrictive tier, red. But the state was expected today to announce essentially a third standard when it comes to the positive test rate which will set back Tulare County’s effort to move into the third tier.

Board members reacted by seeing red — a red that represented anger and not the next tier.

“What it really means is we’re screwed,” board member Amy Shuklian said.

“The state has got their hand across our neck,” board member Kuyler Crocker said.

Board Chairman Peter Vander Poel also expressed his frustration with the state. “How many times has the state changed the rules?” Vander Poel asked Lutz.

“I lost count on that one,” Lutz said. Lutz also expressed his frustration. “We followed the rules. I feel we got punished.”

Board member Dennis Townsend expressed his frustration with the state as well. “Say it ain’t so,” Townsend said.

Townsend said the state just decides to “change the target every week or so. We’re trying to hit a moving target.”

Townsend noted Tulare County has met such state standards as hospital

ization rates. On Tuesday the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Tulare County was down to 33.

Townsend also noted Tulare County’s R number, .88, is below the state’s R number, which is .97. Townsend said the state once considered that to be an important number but apparently doesn’t consider it to be that important any more.

At .88, Tulare County still has a rate of increase that’s considered to be “likely decreasing” from its current rate. The number .88 represents the average number of people one infected person would infect.

Until the state’s latest standard, Tulare County was well on its way to moving into the red tier. Tulare County is now well below the positive test rate threshold of 8 percent to move into the red tier as Lutz reported on Tuesday that rate is now 5.9 percent.

Lutz also reported on Tuesday Tulare County’s case rate over a 7-day period has fallen to 8.8 per 100,000.

Originally Tulare

County would have needed to meet the positive test rate, lower its case rate to 7 per 100,000 and maintain those numbers for two weeks to move into the red tier.

But now the state is tacking on another testing requirement. Counties will be broken into four areas and their most disadvantaged area must also have a positive test rate below 8 percent for them to move into the red tier.

As far as the 5.9 percent positive test rate with the state’s new standard, Townsend reacted by saying, “We’re going to find out today that doesn’t matter any more.”

“Understandably this has generated a lot of frustration with the impacted counties,” Lutz said.

He added Tulare County is “one that’s probably going impacted by this metric. Realistically it will delay our advancement to the next level.”

Lutz said there’s another way in which a county can move into the red tier. If a county maintains a positive test rate of less than 5 percent for two weeks, its case rate wouldn’t matter, but the county would still also have to hit the positive test standard for its most disadvantaged area to move into the red tier.

As far as schools reopening for in-person instruction for grades K-6, locally St. Anne’s, Zion Lutheran, Saucelito and Hope Schools have all had their waivers approved to do so.

Two other local schools — Springville and Sunnyside — have applied for waivers and their waivers are still being reviewed.

Lutz reported the trend Tulare County has been seeing has continued. Since March 11 there has been 16,204 cases in Tulare County. That number increased by 422 over the last week, a 2.6 percent increase. That’s slightly below the 2.7 percent increase from the week before.

Lutz reported no more deaths on Tuesday, leaving the total of deaths due to COVID-19 in Tulare County at 263. There have been six deaths in Tulare County in the last week. The state model projects Tulare County to have 282 deaths by October 29.

Of the 263 deaths, 204 were over the age of 65, 55 were ages 4164 and four were under 41. There have been 119 deaths related to nursing homes and 144 deaths not related to nursing homes.

The number of recoveries increased by 90 over the previous day. There are now 15,392 people in Tulare County who have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19.

The number of active cases continued their gradual rise. There are now 549 people in Tulare County who have COVID-19.

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

Sierra View reported four of its 10 ICU beds were in use and six of its 19 ventilators were in use. Sierra View reported it now has six employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 45 employees who have recovered. Sierra View has had a total of 337 positive tests.

As of Monday, Visalia’s Kaweah Delta Hospital reported it had 26 COVID-19 hospitalizations of which six were in ICU.

With a population of nearly 470,000 people, Tulare County has an overall rate of a little more than 3.4 cases per 100 residents or 3.4 percent.

PLAYGROUNDS CAN OPEN

The state announced all playgrounds in California can open with restrictions. All children 2 and older must wear a face covering while using a playground and eating and drinking is to be limited to ensure face coverings are worn as much as possible.

Children must also be under adult supervision. Playgrounds must also have a maximum capacity and social distancing of at least six feet must be maintained. The guidelines also state visits to playgrounds should be limited to 30 minutes when others are present.

Indoor playgrounds and indoor entertainment centers must remain closed. BY THE NUMBERS Since March 11 there have been 2,594 cases in the Porterville area, 161 cases in Terra Bella, 228 cases in Strathmore, 662 cases in Lindsay, 45 cases in foothill-mountain communities, 138 cases in Richgrove, 28 cases in Alpaugh, 284 cases in Pixley, 89 cases in Tipton, 657 cases in Earlimart, 2,593 cases in Tulare, 1,805 cases in Dinuba, 320 cases in

Exeter, 481 cases in Farmersville, 283 cases in Woodlake, 583 cases in Orosi, 324 cases in Cutler, 41 cases in Goshen, 81 cases in Traver, 14 cases in the Reedley area and 11 cases in Orange Cove.

In Visalia there have been 2,035 cases in one region, 1,329 cases in another region and 1,118 cases in a third region.

There have been 68 cases reported as travel-related, 5,391 cases due to person-to-person contact and 10,745 cases are under investigation.

There have been 2,269 cases ages 0-17, 2,582 cases ages 18-25, 4,670 cases ages 26-40, 5,037 cases ages 41-64, 1,635 cases ages 65 and older.

There have been 9,161 cases who have been Hispanic, 1,539 who have been Caucasian, 285 have been Asian, 71 have been African American, 48 have been Native American, 307 have been multi-race and 4,793 are unknown.

There are 437 people in Tulare County who are under self-quarantine and being monitored by public health officials.