New (School) Year Plans
Active cases in county continue to go up Burton sets January 11 as tentative reopening date
Based on its preliminary, unofficial case rate, Tulare County finds itself further away from the red tier than it has been in a long time.
Tulare County’s preliminary, unofficial rate as released by Tulare County Health and Human Services on Thursday was 13.3 cases per 100,000 over a 7-day period. That’s nearly twice the 7 cases per 100,000 for Tulare County to move from the most restrictive tier, purple, to the next least restrictive tier, red. That number was also an increase of 1.3 over the previously announced rate.
As far as schools is concerned, the Burton School District which has been cleared by the county and state to reopen for grades K-6, has set a tentative date of January 11 for reopening.
Tulare County’s official rate released on Tuesday was 10 cases per 100,000. That number figures to continue to go up when the next official rate is announced this Tuesday.
There was a glimmer of hope as far as the overall number of new cases announced by the county on Thursday as that number wasn’t as high as it’s been. But that number remained about twice as much as what’s needed for Tulare County to move into the red tier.
The health department announced there were 131 more cases on Thursday or about 65 a day over the last two days. Tulare County Health and Human Services Director Tim Lutz has said Tulare County needs to average 32 cases a day to move into the red tier.
Since March 11 there have been 18,741 cases in Tulare County. The number of active cases also continues to rise.
There are now 801 people in Tulare County who have COVID-19, an increase of 39 over the previous number.
The number of recoveries increased by 92 over the previous number. There are now 17,641 people in Tulare County who have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19.
Tulare County’s overall positive test rate is 5.2 percent and its equity metric positive test rate for its most disadvantage areas is 5.6 percent so it meets the standard to move into the red tier in both of those areas.
On the first Tuesday in which Tulare County meets all the standards it must maintain those numbers for two weeks to move into the red tier. Restaurants can then open indoors at 25 percent, churches can open indoors at 25 percent, movie theaters can open on a limited basis and schools can reopen for
all students.
As far as schools, Burton plans to reopen for grades K-6 on January 11. Jim Maples Academy, Burton Elementary, Oak Grove, William R. Buckley and the Summit Matthew and Redwood campuses are schedule to reopen, but Summit Charter Intermediate Academy won’t reopen.
The plan calls for students to attend school four days a week on a half day schedule. One group of students would attend school in the morning and the other group of students would attend school in the afternoon.
Students would attend school Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and would continue with online learning on Wednesday. Students would also be given the choice to continue with just online learning.
Porterville Unified School District Elementary Schools have been approved by the county to reopen for grades K-6 and that approval is still being reviewed by the state. Springville’s and Woodville’s waivers are still being reviewed by the county.
The health department reported no new deaths on Thursday, leaving the total of deaths in Tulare County due to COVID-19 at 299. The county has data on 297 deaths of which 231 were ages 65 and older, 62 were ages 41-64 and four were under the age of 41.
There have been 119 deaths related to nursing homes and 178 deaths not related to nursing homes. The state model projects Tulare County to have 325 deaths by December 12.
Tulare County’s R number continues to rise and is now up to 1.08. That still represents an increased case rate that’s “likely stable,” meaning cases are expected to increase a their current rate.
The number 1.08 represents the average number of people who would be infected by one infected person. The state’s R number is 1.17, meaning its increase of cases is now “likely increase,” meaning the rate of increase of cases in the state is expected to be higher than its current rate.
Since March 11, there have been 3,160 cases in the Porterville area, 201 cases in Terra Bella, 268 cases in Strathmore, 722 cases in Lindsay, 53 cases in foothill-mountain communities, 3,032 cases in Tulare, 1,976 cases in Dinuba, 143 cases in Richgrove, 28 cases in Alpaugh, 321 cases in Pixley, 116 cases in Tipton, 733 cases in Earlimart, 569 cases in Farmersville, 406 cases in Exeter, 332 cases in Woodlake, 388 cases in Cutler, 675 cases in Orosi, 47 cases in Goshen, 96 cases in Traver, 15 cases in the Reedley area and 11 cases in Orange Cove.
In Visalia there have been 2,255 cases in one region, 1,309 cases in another region and 1,536 cases in a third region.
There have been 2,669 cases ages 0-17, 2,976 cases ages 18-25, 5,387 cases ages 26-40, 5,816 cases ages 41-64 and 1,883 cases ages 65 and older.
There have been 10,838 cases who have been Hispanic, 1,868 have been Caucasian, 348 have been Asian, 93 have been African American, 64 have been Native American, 381 have been multirace and 5,149 are unknown.
There are 500 people in Tulare County under self-quarantine who are being monitored by public health officials.
As of Thursday, Sierra View Medical Center reported it had 12 COVID-19 patients and eight patients suspected of having COVID-19. Sierra View has had 52 deaths due to COVID-19.
Sierra View reported four of its 10 ICU beds were in use and three of its 17 ventilators were in use. Sierra View reported it still has no employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 at this time. Sierra View has had a total of 417 positive tests.
One in 25 residents in Tulare County have now tested positive for COVID-19. With a population of nearly 470,000 people, Tulare County has had a rate of four cases per 100 residents or four percent.