Coronavirus

Coronavirus update, Aug. 31: Stanislaus reports zero deaths as hospitalizations fall

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Latest facts on COVID-19 testing in Modesto area

As hospitalizations of confirmed COVID-19 patients to continue to fall, Stanislaus County reported zero deaths on Sunday – just the second time this month they’ve gone a day without making the grim announcement, according to county data.

The death toll tied to the coronavirus pandemic in the county stood at 255 as hospitalizations dropped to 113 from a two-week high of 205.

The county reported 62 more positive cases on Sunday out of 482 test results for a single-day infection rate of 12.86%, down from 23.46% the day before.

The seven-day infection rate trended upward slightly to 19.62%, while the 14-day rate fell by nearly one percentage point to 18.26%.

Nevertheless, the county remained squarely in the lowest purple tier, part of Gov. Newsom’s new grading system that will go toward measuring the ability to begin fully re-opening businesses.

Stanislaus County, along with the majority of the 58 California counties, were in the “purple tier,” with 14.5 positive cases per 100,000 residents and a positivity rate of 12.5%.

To move up into the “red tier,” which enables a softening of restrictions, the county needs to be at seven positive cases per 100,000 or below and a positivity rate of 8% or below.

The tier system does not impact the potential for a county to apply for a waiver to re-open on-campus learning for kindergarten through sixth grade students.

Of the 87,426 residents tested since the start of the pandemic nearly six months ago, 16.6%, down from 16.7% a day before, have tested positive in the county. Nearly 73,000 have tested negative and 13,435 are presumed recovered.

The 62 cases announced Sunday was the third lowest single-day total since early August.

There were nine intensive care unit beds available for adults Saturday, up from eight on Saturday..

Statistics on gender, age and ethnicity percentage, along with total cases by city, did not appear to be updated Saturday.

In other nearby counties:

None of the data from those counties were updated Sunday.

As of Monday morning, there were 706,570 confirmed cases in California and 12,939 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. There were 5,997,623 U.S. cases and 183,068 deaths.

Here is the state tracker.

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From around the state, nation and world

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A man was caught on video yelling and pointing in workers’ faces during a meltdown at a Walmart store in Alaska.

A study shows California’s stay-at-home order in response to the coronavirus seems to have saved some wildlife, as decreased traffic resulted in fewer collisions with mountain lions, deer and other large animals.

Follow More of Our Reporting on Coronavirus in California

Brian Clark
The Modesto Bee
Editor Brian Clark has worked at The Modesto Bee since 1990. He’s worked in various departments, including sports, news and on the digital side for a decade before being promoted to editor in 2018. He’s a native of Berkeley and a graduate of San Diego State University. Prior to The Bee, Brian worked at the Turlock Journal and Las Vegas Review-Journal.
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