Tulare County continues gradual trend to red tier

Rockford gets county approval, still waiting on state

Tulare County continues its positive gradual trend as far as eventually making it into the red tier. The county also saw a decrease in active cases on Friday.

Tulare County Health and Human Services reported the number of active cases in the county decreased by 32 on Friday. There are now 566 people in Tulare County who have COVID-19.

There was also a slight decline in the case rate Tulare County needs to move into the red tier. On Friday, Tulare County’s case rate over the last seven days was 9.6 per 100,000, a decrease of .2 from the previous day.

In order for Tulare County to move from the most restrictive tier — purple — to the next least restrictive tier — red — it needs to lower than number to 7 per 100,000.

Tulare County meets the standard for the red tier when it comes to its positive test rate. The county’s overall positive test rate is 6.2 percent, below the 8 percent threshold, and its positive test rate for its most disadvantaged areas is 7.2 percent, which also is below the 8 percent threshold.

On the first Tuesday Tulare County meets all of the standards, it must maintain those numbers for two weeks to move into the red tier. Then restaurants could open indoors at 25 percent capacity, churches could open indoors at 25 percent capacity, movie theaters could open on a limited basis and schools could reopen for all students.

As far as schools, Rockford School was the latest school to receive approval from the county to reopen for grades K-6. Rockford’s approval is now being reviewed by the state.

Local schools that have been approved to reopen for grades K-6 are Saucelito, Hope, Zion Lutheran and St. Anne’s.

Local schools that have applied for a waiver that are still under review are Kennedy, Roosevelt, Lincoln, Reagan, Jefferson and Washington all in Lindsay, Springville, Strathmore Elementary

and Sunnyside.

The number of total cases in Tulare County increased by 76 on Friday. Since March 11 there have been 16,794 COVID-19 cases in Tulare County.

The number of recoveries exceed the number of new cases on Friday, leading to the decline in active cases. The number of recoveries increased by 108 on Friday. There are now 15,995 people in Tulare County who have recovered after testing

positive for COVID-19.

Tulare County reported no new deaths on Friday, leaving the number of deaths due to COVID-19 in the county at 269. The state model now projects Tulare County to have 300 deaths by November 8.

Out of 265 deaths recorded by Tulare County, 205 have been above the age of 65, 56 have been ages 41-64 and for four have been younger than 41. There have been 119 deaths related to nursing homes and 146 deaths not related to nursing homes.

Another good sign is Tulare County’s R number came back down below 1. Tulare County’s R number is still at a level of “likely stable,” meaning the increase in cases is expected to continue at its current rate.

But Tulare County’s

R number came down from 1.03 to .98. That number represents the average number of people one infected person would infect.

The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Tulare County went back up to 37, but that was to be expected based on numbers reported by Sierra View Medical Center and Visalia’s Kaweah Delta Hospital.

As of Friday, Sierra View reported it had 11 COVID-19 hospitalizations and six patients suspected of having COVID-19. Sierra View has had 45 deaths due to COVID-19.

Sierra View reported six of its 10 ICU beds were in use and four of its 18 ventilators were in use. Sierra View reported it now has two employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 51 employees who have recovered. Sierra View has had a total of 354 positive tests.

On Thursday,

Kaweah Delta reported it had 22 COVID-19 hospitalizations of which four were in ICU.

Since March 11 there have 2700 cases in the Porterville area, 2,695 cases in Tulare, 168 cases in Terra Bella, 247 cases in Strathmore, 676 cases in Lindsay, 48 cases in foothill-mountain communities, 143 cases in Richgrove, 28 cases in Alpaugh, 296 cases in Pixley, 96 cases in Tipton, 688 cases in Earlimart, 495 cases in Farmersville, 330 cases in Exeter, 293 cases in Woodlake, 44 cases in Goshen, 1,835 cases in Dinuba, 83 cases in Traver, 356 cases in Cutler, 605 cases in Orosi, 13 cases in the Reedley area and 11 cases in Orange Cove.

In Visalia there have bveen 2,100 cases in one region, 1,156 cases in another region and 1,379 cases in a third region.

There have been 68 cases reported as travel-related, 5,619 due to person-to-person contact and 11,107 cases are under investigation.

There have been 2,380 cases ages 0-17, 2,674 cases ages 18-25, 4,837 cases ages 26-30, 5,206 cases ages 41-64 and 1,687 cases ages 65 and older.

There have been 9,571 cases who have been Hispanic, 1,614 have been Caucasian, 304 have been Asian, 75 have been African American, 52 have been Native American, 317 have been multirace and 4861 are unknown.

There are 495 people in Tulare County who are under self-quarantine and being monitored by public health officials.

With a population of nearly 470,000 people, Tulare County has had a rate of 3.57 cases per 100 residents or 3.57 percent.