Vaccination Destinations
County continues to step up vaccine effort
There are now 45 places in Tulare County where one can receive the COVID-19 vaccination.
That was the report given by Tulare County Health and Human Services Director Tim Lutz during his weekly presentation on the status of COVID-19 in the county at the Tulare County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday.
The latest and first pop-up vaccination site now offering vaccines is now in an area where a great need was identified by the county at the Lindsay Wellness Center. Lutz said the Lindsay Wellness Center should be able to offer vaccines for the next weeks.
Those who are eligible who want to sign up for vaccines at the Lindsay Wellness Center or through the county can visit myturn.ca.gov or call 1-833-422-4255. Lutz said the county plans to offer other pop-up vaccination sites, including in East Porterville.
The Johnson and Johnson vaccine which requires just one dose is also coming to Tulare County. Lutz said the county is set to receive 6,400 doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. But added after this allocation he expects it will be another two to three weeks before the county receives another allocation.
As far as the initial allocation, Lutz said plans are for the vaccine to go to such groups as those being discharged from hospitals to skilled nursing facilities and the homeless.
As of Tuesday 63,086 residents in Tulare County have received at least one dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, which requires two doses, and a total of 87,955 doses have been given. Those who have received their first dose but don’t have an appointment for a second dose should call 685-6620.
Lutz said 32 percent of educators in the county so far have been vaccinated and more than 50 percent of those 65 and older have been vaccinated. Lutz said the county continues to work on increasing the number of those in the food and agriculture industry, including farmworkers, being vaccinated.
He said one issue is the four state-operated vaccination sites in the county in Earlimart, Woodlake, Dinuba and the Porterville Veterans Memorial Building requires identification. “That presents a potential barrier to access,” Lutz said. Lutz said the county is working with the state on the issue.
Beginning Monday, March 15 the county will also provide free public transportation for residents who have vaccination appointments.
The eligibility standards also continue to change. Eligibility has now been expanded to those such as the homeless, public utility workers, those in transportation and informal child care providers such as grandparents who care for their grandchildren. Beginning next week eligibility will be expanded to those ages 16 to 64 who have underlying health conditions.
For more information on vaccines visit https:// covid19.tularecounty. ca.gov/covid-19-vaccine/ BY THE NUMBERS The number of COVID-19 cases in Tulare County increased by 313 over the last week, the lowest increase since even before the surge last summer. The number of cases on Tuesday increased by 80 from Monday. Since March 11 there have been 48,399 cases in Tulare County.
There were 10 more deaths over the last week, which is a far lower number than what has been happening. The number of deaths increased by three from Monday to Tuesday. Tulare County has had 776 deaths due to COVID-19.
The county has data on 770 deaths of which 580 were ages 65 and older, 174 were ages 41-64 and 15 were ages 26-40.
There has been one child in Tulare County who has died due to complications with COVID-19.
There have been 179 deaths related to nursing homes and 401 deaths not related to nursing homes. Sierra View Medical Center has had 158 deaths due to COVID-19.
Tulare County’s active case rate continued to rise, increasing by 66 on Tuesday. There are now 838 people in Tulare County who have tested positive for COVID-19.
Lutz said the number of active cases is becoming more stable and continues to depend on the dates when cases are recorded and the number of recoveries.
The increase in active cases on Tuesday was again caused by a lower number of recoveries reported. There were 11 recoveries on Tuesday. There have now been 46,785 people in Tulare County who have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19.
Tulare County’s R number which measures the rate of spread of the virus remains in the “likely decreasing” decreasing category at .65. That means the rate of the virus is expected to increase at a lower level than its current rate. The number .65 represents the average number of people who would be infected by one infected person.
There have been 7,218 cases ages 0-17, 7,521 cases ages 18-25, 13,583 cases ages 26-40, 15,028 cases ages 41-64 and 5,022 cases ages 65 and older.
There have been 26,926 cases who have been Hispanic, 6,738 cases have been Caucasian, 967 have been Asian, 342 have been African American, 318 have been Native American, 1,596 have been multi-race and 11,512 are unknown.
Since March 11 there have been 9,803 cases in the Porterville area, 702 cases in Terra Bella, 152 cases in Springville, 619 cases in Strathmore, 1,780 cases in Lindsay, 43 cases in foothillmountain communities, 8,599 cases in Tulare, 4,123 cases in Dinuba, 324 cases in Richgrove, 78 cases in Alpaugh, 361 cases in Tipton, 781 cases in Pixley, 1,443 cases in Earlimart, 1,150 cases in Farmersville, 1,032 cases in Exeter, 891 cases in Woodlake, 730 cases in Cutler, 52 cases in Three Rivers, 1,434 cases in Orosi, 89 cases in Goshen, 254 cases in Traver, 59 cases in the Reedley area, 22 cases in Orange Cove and 493 cases in Ivanhoe.
In Visalia there have been 5,294 cases in one region, 3,475 cases in another region and 4,161 cases in a third region.
There are 191 people in Tulare County under selfquarantine being monitored by public health officials.
On Tuesday Sierra View reported it had eight COVID-19 patients and 11 patients suspected of having COVID-19. Sierra View reported three of its 10 ICU beds were in use. Sierra View reported two of its 22 ventilators were in use.
Sierra View reported it currently has no employees who have tested positive for COVID-19. There have been 172 employees who have recovered of which six were hospitalized. Sierra View has had a total of 1,150 positive tests.
With a population of about 477,000 Tulare County’s overall case rate has been 10.1 percent.