Foster Farms officially removed from Merced County’s coronavirus outbreaks list
Two additional deaths of Merced County residents due to the novel coronavirus were confirmed on Wednesday, according to the Merced County Department of Public Health.
The new fatalities increased the total number of COVID-19-caused deaths since the pandemic’s start to 145.
Both of the deceased individuals were females, age 65 or older, with underlying health conditions prior to death, according to County Public Health.
Also on Wednesday, Merced County’s most severe COVID-19 outbreak to date — the Foster Farms plant in Livingston — was officially cleared from the list of locally active outbreaks.
The plant had been permitted to resume operations on Sept. 7 after a prior temporary closure of about a week and mandatory testing of employees.
Still, sites are not closed and removed from Merced County’s outbreaks list until no new laboratory confirmed cases are linked to the location for two weeks.
In addition to topping the list as the deadliest outbreaks in the county, Livingston’s Foster Farms plant was among the worst occupational outbreaks related to coronavirus within the entire state, County Public Health officials have said.
More than 392 Foster Farms employees tested positive for COVID-19 and nine are reported to have died.
Although Foster Farms was struck from the local active outbreaks list on Wednesday, two new workplace locations were added: See’s Candies at the Merced Mall and the Merced County Department of Public Works.
The additions increased the number of current outbreaks to 11.
With the exception of skilled nursing facilities, outbreaks are defined as three or more COVID-19 cases linked to a workplace within two weeks. Just one positive case constitutes an outbreak at a skilled nursing facility.
More on COVID-19 in Merced County
Wednesday marked the second day of a crucial two week countdown for Merced County.
If local COVID-19 data remains stable or improves over the next 14 days, state-mandated restrictions will ease up on nonessential businesses throughout the county as it advances to the second-strictest reopening tier.
In order to do so, the testing positivity rate and daily number of cases per 100,000 residents must consistently remain below 8% and seven, respectively.
The county’s number of daily positive cases per 100,000 residents hit exactly seven on Tuesday, according to state data. Data is updated by the state each Tuesday.
Merced County’s testing positivity, which indicates the percentage of residents screened for COVID-19 during the past week who test positive, rose slightly to 3.8% on Wednesday. Still, the data point remained well below the state-define maximum of 8%.
Wednesday also brought with it slightly more COVID-19 cases than recent days. The 32 new laboratory confirmed infections marked the highest daily count since Sept. 16.
The additional cases raised Merced County’s tally to 8,993 known positives since the beginning of the pandemic.
Of those total cases, 336 are estimated to be currently active. The active case estimate is based on the total number of laboratory confirmed positive infections during the last two weeks.
Active hospitalizations of Merced County residents due to severe cases of coronavirus fell by two patients to 42 on Wednesday. Eleven patients are being cared for within the county while the majority are at outside facilities.
The number of residents ever hospitalized due to COVID-19 remained at 690.
This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Foster Farms officially removed from Merced County’s coronavirus outbreaks list."
