County and state COVID numbers improving

As of Monday the outlook when it came to the COVID-19 virus was much better when it came to Tulare County and the state as compared to as recent as the past few weeks.

But as always with winter — and another holiday weekend — coming, officials and Governor Gavin Newsom are saying no one should let down their guard.

But the situation is still much better than the first of the month in which Kaweah Delta Hospital had to declare a crisis as its patients outnumbered its beds. The situation has also improved at Sierra View Medical Center since Labor Day weekend when that hospital was placed on diversionary status for a few hours in which patients be taken to its emergency room were being transferred elsewhere.

There has been a considerable drop in Tulare County’s positive test rate as it came down to 4.3 percent as of Monday. The county’s positive test rate had reached as high as 10.7 percent early in the fall.

But the county’s positive test rate is still higher than the state’s, which is at 1.9 percent. As a result the state has one of the lowest infection rates in the country.

COVID-19 hospitalizations have fallen about 14 percent in the last month in the state and considerably more over in Tulare County over a longer period of time. On Monday the state reported Tulare County had 104 hospitalizations due to COVID, considerably lower than the high that reached above 180.

On Friday, Sierra View reported it had 21 COVID-19 patients and 3 patients suspected of having COVID-19. Those numbers have fluctuated a little in recent days but remain lower than when the hospital had more than 30 COVID-19 patients and patients suspected of having COVID-19 in the double digits.

But while there’s been a small improvement in the availability of ICU

beds the seriousness of COVID cases local hospitals are seeing still remains an issue. On Friday, Sierra View reported nine of its 10 ICU beds were in place.

The state reported on Monday there were 7 ICU beds available in Tulare County. For a while the county fell to a level in which the state was typically reporting just 1 ICU bed available in the county.

Tulare County’s case rate has also come down considerably to 16.5 per 100,000 as of Monday. That still places the county at a high transmission rate, the highest rate determined by the Centers For Disease Control. But the rate had reached a level above 28 per 100,000.

And although the state has a case rate of 10.8 per 100,000, that still places the state in the substantial submission category, one level below the high transmission rate category.

The CDC recommends all those who are in substantial or high transmission counties and states still wear a mask while indoors no matter if they’re fully vaccinated or not.

And that’s what Newsom did on Monday, urging people to wear masks ad ben vaccinated ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

And there’s a direct correlation between vaccination and case rates. The county’s vaccination rate has run about 20 percent below the rest of the state.

As of Monday, 75.5 percent of the state’s population ages 5 and above had received at least one dose of a vaccination. For those 18 and older 91 percent have received at least one shot.

Newsom noted 27 states have seen a 10 percent increase in cases in the past week.

Tulare County is faring better than neighboring counties. Fresno County, which has nearly 1 million people, has a case rate of 20.2 per 100,000, which ranks in the top 10 highest in the state.

Kern County’s rate is 18.1 per 100,000. Kings County still has an extremely high rate of 27.3 per 100,000. Los Angeles County with a population 10 times as large as Fresno County has a case rate of 9.3 per 100,000 which ranks in the bottom third in the state.

Tulare County’s R number which measures the rate of the virus also continues to come down. It’s now down to .65 which places the county in the “likely decreasing” number, meaning the rate is expected to increase at a lower level than the current level of increase.

The number .65 represents the average number of people who would be infected by one infected person.

Since March 11, 2020 Tulare County has had 69,285 cases, according to the state. The county’s number is 69,187.

Tulare County Health and Human Services has the county at 1,066 deaths while the state has the county with 1,075 dealths.

The Porterville area has had 14,312 cases. Sierra View reported it has had 236 deaths due to COVID-19.

The health department reported on Monday there are 1,412 active cases in Tulare County as that number also continues to gradually decline.

About 14.2 percent of Tulare County residents have tested positive for COVID-19.