Tulare County remains stagnant in effort to move to red tier

Rockford can now open for grades K-6

As far as the case rate needed for Tulare County to move into the red tier, the county has remained stagnant.

Tulare County Health and Human Services reported on Monday the county’s case rate over the last seven days was 9.8 per 100,000 residents.

The rate increased by .2 over the weekend.

For Tulare County to move from the most restrictive tier — the purple tier — to the next least restrictive tier — the red tier — the county must lower that number to 7 cases per 100,000.

Tulare County meets the positive test standards to move into the red tier as its overall positive test rate is 6.2 percent which is below the 8 percent threshold and it was reported last week its positive test rate in its most disadvantaged areas is 7.2 percent which also is below the 8 percent threshold.

On the first Tuesday in which Tulare County meets the standards it must maintain those numbers for two weeks to move into the red tier. Restaurants in the county would then be able to open indoors at 25 percent capacity, churches would be able to open indoors at 25 percent capacity, movie theaters would be able to open on a limited basis and

schools would be able to reopen for all students.

When it comes to schools, Rockford School became the latest school to be cleared to reopen for grades K-6. Rockford joins local schools Zion Lutheran, St. Anne’s, Hope and Saucelito that are also allowed to provide in-person instruction for grades K-6.

Waivers for K-6 in-person instruction still under review are Reagan, Jefferson, Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Kennedy Schools in Lindsay, Springville, Sunnyside and Strathmore Elementary.

While Tulare County reported an increase in the number of active cases over the weekend, the increase in the total number of cases it reported was relatively small.

Tulare County reported an increase of 61 active cases over the weekend. There are now 627 people in Tulare County who have COVID-19.

The total number of cases increased by 96 over the weekend, so the number increased by a relatively small 32 a day over the last three days. Since March 11 there have been 16,890 COVID-19 cases in Tulare County.

There was a small increase of recoveries in the county as the number of recoveries increased by 35 over the weekend. There have been 15,994 people who have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19.

The health department reported no new deaths due to COVID-19 over the weekend, leaving the total number of deaths due to COVID-19 at 269. The state model projects Tulare County to have 300 deaths by November 11.

Of the 265 deaths recorded by the county, 205 were over the age of 65, 56 were between the ages of 41 and 64 and four were under the age of 41.

There have been 119 deaths related to nursing homes and 146 deaths not related to nursing homes.

While Tulare County didn’t report any deaths on Monday, Sierra View Medical Center reported one more death, bringing the total number of deaths at Sierra View due to COVID-19 to 46.

While still “likely stable” which means cases are expected to increase at their current rate, Tulare County’s R number continues to drop slightly and is now down to .96. That number represents the average number of people one infected person would infect.

The health department reported the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Tulare County is 37. That number should go down based on stats reported by Sierra View Medical Center and Visalia’s Kaweah Delta Hospital.

As of Monday Sierra View reported it had seven COVID-19 hospitalizations and four patients suspected of having COVID-19.

Sierra View reported three of its 10 ICU beds were in use and three 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 355 positive tests.

As of Friday, Kaweah Delta reported it had 21 COVID-19 hospitalizations of which five were in ICU.

Since March 11 there have been 2,723 cases in the Porterville area, 169 cases in Terra Bella, 249 cases in Strathmore, 681 cases in Lindsay, 139 cases in Richgrove, 48 cases in foothill-mountain communities, 2,717 cases in Tulare, 28 cases in Alpaugh, 296 cases in Pixley, 95 cases in Tipton, 691 cases in Earlimart, 496 cases in Farmersville, 332 cases in Exeter, 299 cases in Woodlake, 1,844 cases in Dinuba, 44 cases in Goshen, 83 cases in Traver, 358 cases in Cutler, 609 cases in Orosi, 13 cases in the Reedley area and 11 cases in Orange Cove.

In Visalia there have been 2,110 cases in one region, 1,157 cases in another region and 1,385 cases in a third region.

There have been 68 cases reported as travel-related, 5,654 cases due to person-to-person contact and 11,168 cases are under investigation.

There have been 2,392 cases ages 0-17, 2,689 cases ages 18-25, 4,862 cases ages 26-40, 5,236 cases ages 41-64 and 1,701 cases ages 65 and older.

There have been 9,630 cases who have been Hispanic, 1,624 have been Caucasian, 304 have been Asian, 78 have been African American, 56 have been Native American, 321 have been multi-race and 4,877 are unknown.

There are 470 people in Tulare County who are in selfquarantine being monitored by public health officials.

With a population of nearly 470,000 people, Tulare County has had a rate of 3.6 cases per 100 residents or 3.6 percent.

THREE HOUSEHOLDS CAN GATHER

With Halloween, Thanksgiving and end of the year holidays coming up, Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Monday guidelines allowing more people to gather, but still designed to discourage large gatherings.

Three households can gather outdoors as long as they wear masks and follow certain guidelines. Gatherings larger than three households are discouraged and the guidelines also state gatherings must be held outdoors. The guidelines can be found here: https:// www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/ CID/DCDC/PAGES/COVID-19/ Cdph-guidance-for-the-prevention- of- COVID- 19- Transmission-for-gatherings-10-09. aspx