Work In Progress
County still working to moving into red tier Testing remains a key to that happening
While Tulare County continues to head closer to moving into the red tier, the county’s health department director said a great deal of work needs to be done before that happens.
That was the report from Tulare County Health and Human Services Director Tim Lutz presented during his weekly update on the status of COVID-19 in Tulare County at Tuesday’s Tulare County Board of Supervisors meeting.
While not the official rate as measured by the state, Lutz reported on Tuesday Tulare County’s most recent “non-lagged” rate has come down to 7.8 cases per 100,000 over a seven-day period. Lutz added he expected that rate to increase slightly when it’s finalized.
For Tulare County to move from the most restrictive tier — purple — to the next least restrictive tier — red — it must have a case rate of 7 per 100,000. “We still do have quite a lot of work to do,” Lutz said.
The point made by Lutz was demonstrated by the numbers he reported on Tuesday. There was a jump in overall cases on Tuesday as since March 11 there have been 17,317 cases in Tulare County.
That’s an increase of 111 from the previous day. It should be noted though Tuesdays are normally the largest increase for cases as that’s when the county of all cases from over the weekend is completed.
The magical number now for Tulare County is 32, Lutz said. Lutz said Tulare County needs to average 32 cases a day to reach the 7 per 100,000 rate. He added Tulare County has been averaging 45 cases per day.
There was also a large increase in the number of recoveries in Tulare County on Tuesday. The number of people in Tulare County who have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19 is 16,473, an increase of 102 over the previous day.
Those numbers caused a slight increase in the number of active cases in Tulare County. Tulare County now has 565 people who have COVID-19, an increase of six over the previous day.
Lutz and the board stressed the importance of testing — particularly those who are asymptomatic to be tested — as far as Tulare County moving into the red tier. Lutz also said there are “bad actors” still holding the county back when it comes to it moving into the red tier.
He said the county still has a problem with businesses and others in large gatherings not following state guidelines.
“We absolutely understand the frustration,” said Lutz about many sectors in the county still be shut down considerably.
But he added about the bottom line reality, “its still holding back our ability for the county to move forward.”
Tulare County continues to meet the standard for moving into the red tier when it comes to its positive test rate at 5.1 percent, well below the 8 percent threshold.
And the county has also met the standard in an area that it though was going to be a problem area as far as its positive test rate for its most disadvantaged areas. Lutz reported on Tuesday that number was 6.7 percent, below the 8 percent threshold.
On the first Tuesday in which Tulare County meets all of the standards it must maintain those numbers for two weeks to move into the red tier. When that happens, restaurants can open indoors at 25 percent capacity, churches can open indoors at 25 percent capacity, movie theaters can open on a limited basis and schools can re-open to all of its students.
While schools in the county are working to re-open for grades K-6, the concern on the toll that’s being taken on seventh through 12th grade students continued to be expressed at Tuesday’s meeting.
One alternative is for those students to participate in day camps. Schools have also begun bringing back its students who have had the most difficulty with distance learning such as special education students.
When doing so, schools can bring back students in classrooms that are no more than 14 students up to 25 percent of a school’s capacity. Porterville Unified School District has brought back students struggling the most with distance learning on this basis.
But Lutz admitted other than those options, the best option for bringing all students back is to move into the red tier. “This is a group that’s really falling between the cracks,” Lutz said.
As far as K-6 waivers as of Tuesday morning, PUSD’S application for all of its elementary schools, Springville and Woodville were all still under review. They’re looking to join numerous local schools who have been cleared to re-open at the K-6 level.
Lutz also reported three more deaths on Tuesday, brining the total of deaths due to COVID-19 in Tulare County to 279. Tulare County has had 10 deaths due to COVID-19 in the last week. Despite the recent increase, the state model’s estimate of deaths in Tulare County has declined as it now projects Tulare County to have 292 deaths by November 19.
Tulare County has data on 269 deaths. There have been 209 deaths above the age of 65, 56 deaths between the ages of 4164 and four deaths under the age of 41. There have been 119 deaths related to nursing homes and 150 deaths not related to nursing homes.
Tulare County’s R number is 1.03, indicating its rate increase is “likely stable,” meaning the rate of increase is expected to continue at its current rate. The number 1.03 represents the average number of people one infected person would infect.
The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Tulare County was 30. As of Tuesday, Sierra View Medical Center reported it had eight COVID-19 hospitalizations and five patients suspected of having COVID-19.
Sierra View has had 47 deaths due to COVID-19.
Sierra View reported one of its 10 ICU beds were in use and one of its 18 ventilators were in use.
Sierra View reported it now has four employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 53 employees who have recovered. Sierra View has had a total of 370 positive tests.
BY THE NUMBERS
Since March 11 there have been 2,832 cases in the Porterville area, 175 cases in Terra Bella, 249 cases in Strathmore, 687 cases in Lindsay, 49 cases in foothill-mountain communities, 2,778 cases in Tulare, 1,878 cases in Dinuba, 140 cases in Richgrove, 100 cases in Tipton, 311 cases in Pixley, 28 cases in Alpaugh, 704 cases in Earlimart, 515 cases in Farmersville, 348 cases in Exeter, 305 cases in Woodlake, 628 cases in Orosi, 370 cases in Earlimart, 85 cases in Traver, 45 cases in Goshen, 13 cases in the Reedley area and 11 cases in Orange Cove.
In Visalia there have been 2,117 cases in one region, 1,190 cases in another region and 1,434 cases in a third region.
There have been 68 cases reported as travelrelated, 5,801 cases due to person to person contact and 11,448 cases are unknown.
There have been 2,447 cases ages 0-17, 2,748 cases ages 18-25, 4,987 cases ages 26-40, 5,383 cases ages 41-64 and 1,741 cases ages 65 and older.
There have been 9,931 cases who have been Hispanic, 1,669 have been Caucasian, 317 have been Asian, 79 have been African American, 56 have been Native American, 338 have been multi-race and 4,927 are unknown.
There are 358 people in Tulare County under self-quarantine who are being monitored by public health officials.
With a population of nearly 470,000 people, Tulare County has had a rate of 3.67 cases per 100 residents or 3.67 percent.