Number of active cases goes down

There was a slight improvement in a couple of numbers for Tulare County and the San Joaquin Valley as far its COVID-19 status is concerned.

But the San Joaquin Valley still remains far away from the stay-at-home order that has been issued being lifted. And Tulare County is still far away from moving out of the most restrictive tier, the purple tier.

The availability of ICU beds in the Valley did increase slightly on Friday from 1.9 percent to 4.5 percent. But that number needs to be projected to be at least 15 percent before the stayat-home order in the region can be lifted, which will be in effect through at least December 26.

When the stay-at-home order is lifted Tulare County will return to the purple tier and is still a long ways away from moving into the next least restrictive tier, the red tier.

Despite a slight decrease in active cases on Friday, Tulare County’s overall case rate continues to be on the rise. Tulare County Health and Human Services reported on Friday, Tulare County’s unofficial, preliminary rate is 59.0 cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period, a 3.8 increase from the previous day.

For Tulare County to move into the red tier it must reduce that number to 7 per 100,000. Tulare County must also reduced its overall positive test rate and its equity metric positive test rate for its most disadvantaged areas to move into the red tier.

The health department reported 418 more cases on Friday, bringing the total number of cases since March 11 in Tulare County to 25,042. The department did reported a large increase in recoveries at 455.

There are now 20,750 people in Tulare

County who have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19. The increase in recoveries caused a small decrease in the number of active cases in Tulare County. There are now 3,965 people in Tulare County who have COVID-19, a decrease of 38 from the previous day.

The health department reported one more death on Friday, bringing the total number of deaths in Tulare County due to COVID-19 to 327. The county has data on 317 deaths of which 245 were 65 and older, 68 were ages 41-64 and four were under the age of 41. There have been 122 deaths related to nursing homes and 195 deaths not related to nursing homes.

Tulare County’s R number that measures the spread of the virus remains in the “likely spreading rapidly” category at 1.43. That number represents the average number of people who would be infected by one infected person. The state’s R number is 1.19.

Since March 11 there have been 4,575 cases in the Porterville area, 293 cases in Terra Bella, 343 cases in Strathmore, 883 cases in Lindsay, 54 cases in Springville, 54 cases in other foothillmountain communities, 4,172 cases in Tulare, 2,466 cases in Dinuba, 187 cases in Richgrove, 50 cases in Alpaugh, 426 cases in Pixley, 170 cases in Tipton, 915 cases in Earlimart, 21 cases in Three Rivers, 684 cases in Farmersville, 556 cases in Exeter, 424 cases in Woodlake, 452 cases in Cutler, 827 cases in Orosi, 53 cases in Goshen, 138 cases in Traver, 23 cases in the Reedley area and 11 cases in Orange Cove.

In Visalia there has been 2,820 cases in one region, 1,742 cases in another region and 2,163 cases in a third region.

There have been 3,523 cases ages 0-17, 3,940 cases ages 18-25, 7,247 case ages 26-40, 7,736 cases ages 41-64 and 2,584 cases ages 65 and older.

There have been 14,221 cases who have been Hispanic, 2,859 have been Caucasian, 473 have been Asian, 141 have been African American, 103 have been Native American, 599 have been multi-race and 6,646 are unknown.

There are 471 people in Tulare County under self-quarantine being monitored by public health officials.

As of Friday, Sierra View Medical Center reported it had 32 COVID-19 patients and seven patients suspected of having COVID-19. Sierra View reported four of its 10 ICU beds were in use and six of its 25 ventilators were in use.

Sierra View has had 66 deaths due to COVID-19. Sierra View reported it now has 18 employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 and two of those employees have been hospitalized.

There have been 84 employees who have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19. Sierra View has had a total of 604 positive tests.

With a population of nearly 470,000 people, Tulare County has had a rate of 5.4 cases per 100 residents or 5.4 percent.