Active cases go back up

Undocumented immigrants to receive tax break

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Tulare County went back up on Friday.

Tulare County Health and Human Services reported there are now 520 people in Tulare County who have COVID-19, an increase of 63 over the previous day.

The increase in active cases happened after there was just a slight increase in recoveries. There are now 14,823 people in Tulare County who have recovered from COVID-19, an increase of 19 from the previous day.

As far as Tulare County’s status of move from the most restrictive category — purple — to the next least restrictive category — red, that remained about the same.

Tulare County’s official positive test rate remained the same at 8.7 percent. Tulare County’s rate of cases per 100,000 residents over the previous 7 days came down slightly as that number is back down to 11.3.

Tulare County would need the positive test rate to come down to 8 percent and the case rate to come down to 7 to move into the red category. The state updates the status of counties every Tuesday.

So the first Tuesday Tulare County reaches the magical positive test and case rate numbers, it would have to maintain those numbers for two weeks to move into the red category.

Once Tulare County is in the red category, restaurants could open indoors at 25 percent capacity, churches could also open indoors at 25 percent capacity, movie theaters could open on a limited basis and schools could open for all of their students.

The number of new cases reported on Friday was relatively low at 82, bringing the total of people in Tulare County who have had COVID-19 to 15,599.

The health department reported no deaths on Friday, leaving the total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in Tulare County at 256. The state model continues to project a small number of deaths in Tulare County over the next month, projecting the death total to be 261 by October 18.

Tulare County’s R number continues to remain about the same at .87, continuing to indicate the rate of increase is “likely decreasing,” meaning the rate of increase is expected to be lower than the current rate. The number .87 represents the average number of people who would be infected by one infected person.

The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Tulare County remained the same at 43. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Tulare County nursing homes also remained the same at 596.

There have been 2,462 cases in the Porterville area, 160 cases in Terra Bella, 212 cases in Strathmore, 649 cases in Lindsay, 43 cases in foothill-mountain communities, 135 cases in Richgrove, 28 cases in Alpaugh, 279 cases in Pixley, 87 cases in Tipton, 639 cases in Earlimart, 2,490 cases in Tulare, 1,741 cases in Dinuba, 460 cases in Farmersville, 306 cases in Exeter, 40 cases in Goshen, 80 cases in

Traver, 269 cases in Woodlake, 308 cases in Cutler, 565 cases in Orosi, 14 cases in the Reedley area and 11 cases in Orange Cove.

In Visalia there are 1,974 cases in one region, 1,081 cases in another region and 1,269 cases in a third region.

There have been 68 cases reported as travel-related, 5,171 cases due to person-to-person contact and 10,360 cases are under investigation.

There have been 2,180 cases ages 0-17, 2,465 cases ages 18-25, 4,512 cases ages 26-40, 4,849 cases ages 41-64 and 1,585 cases ages 65 and older.

There have been 8,854 cases who have been Hispanic, 1,491 have been Caucasian, 274 have been Asian, 68 have been African American, 46 have been Native American, 295 have been multi-race and 4,571 are unknown.

There are 355 people under self-quarantine in Tulare County who are being monitored by public health officials.

As of Friday, Sierra View Medical Center had 8 COVID-19 hospitalizations and three patients suspected of having COVID-19. Sierra View has had 42 deaths due to COVID-19.

Sierra View reported two of its 10 ICU beds were in use and two of its 19 ventilators were in use. Sierra View reported it now has three employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 44 employees who have recovered. Sierra View has had a total of 319 positive tests.

As of Thursday, Visalia’s Kaweah Delta Hospital reported it had 27 COVID-19 hospitalizations of which five were in ICU.

With a population of about 470,000 people, Tulare County has had a total rate of slightly more than 3.3 cases per 100 residents or 3.3 percent.

TAX BREAK FOR UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS

Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law on Friday a provision providing undocumented workers with a tax credit. Undocumented workers can now take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

In some cases the tax credit could mean up to hundreds of dollars for undocumented immigrants. California is the only state to offer the Earned Income Tax Credit to undocumented immigrants.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has hit California families hard – especially families of color who were already disproportionately impacted by the ongoing affordability crisis. Undocumented front line workers leave their families every day to keep our economy running, but many are still struggling to make ends meet,” Newsom said. “These Californians are taxpayers and should be treated like taxpayers, eligible for the same credits, and pay the same tax rates.”

The new law allows those with an Individual Tax Identification Number who earn less than $30,000 a year to qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit. ITINS are used by undocumented immigrants to pay taxes.

The Franchise Tax Board said the new law would cost the state about $65 million a year.