Coronavirus update, Oct. 30: Stanislaus hits grim milestone, warns of tougher rules

Latest facts on COVID-19 testing in Modesto area

Stanislaus County on Thursday announced its 400th death to COVID-19. And it warned that a surge in positive tests could bring new limits on the local economy.

Kamlesh Kaur, a health educator for the the county Health Services Agency, said the recent case rate is troubling because it puts the county close to rolling back into the purple, or most restrictive, tier of the state’s reopening plan.

The county needs to keep new cases below 40 per day to stay in the red tier, which is less restrictive for businesses, but the daily count has been in the 40s or 50s for four of the last five days.

If an upward trend in cases that began in mid-October continues, the county could revert to the purple tier around Thanksgiving, Kaur said in a video update Thursday on the Stanemergency Facebook page.

The county is urging people to slow the spread of coronavirus during the Halloween weekend. State guidelines discourage trick-or-treating. Any gatherings should be outdoors with no more than three households participating.

“It is safer to celebrate Halloween at home during this pandemic,” Kaur said.

Word of the county’s 400th death came about six and a half months after the first was reported on April 10. It took until July 29 to reach 100 people lost to the pandemic. A midsummer surge brought the toll to 200 as of Aug. 17. The death rate then slowed, reaching 300 on Sept. 10 and 400 on Thursday.

The 54 new positive tests Thursday brought the county’s total cases to 17,814. Stanislaus also has 102,790 people who have tested negative and 17,077 who are presumed recovered.

Thursday’s positive rate of 8.31% was down from the 14.47% on Wednesday, a five-week high. The rolling seven-day average was 7.27%, down from 7.46%. The 14-day average was 7.18%, up from 7.07%. The rate since data collection began in March was 14.8%.

The number of patients with confirmed cases in the five Stanislaus County hospitals rose to 53 on Thursday from 43 the previous day. That’s the hghest number in more than two weeks. The number of available adult intensive care beds was at 13, down from 15.

Details on the positive cases with some numbers not having been updated for a few weeks:

• 54% are female
• 46% male
• 7% are 14 years or younger, up 1% from Friday.
• 16% are ages 15 to 24
• 21% are 25 to 34,
• 18% are 35 to 44,
• 15% are 45 to 54
• 12% are 55 to 64
• 6% are 65 to 74
• 3% are 75 to 84,
• 2% are 85 or older.
• Though they make up 47 percent of the population, Latinos represented 64 percent of the positive cases.
  
  

Geographically:

• Modesto has 6,461 positive cases
• Turlock has 2,322
• Ceres has 2,160
• Riverbank has 863
• Patterson has 857
• Oakdale has 398
• Newman has 348
• Waterford has 265
• Hughson has 169
• Supervisorial District 5 has 1,101
• District 3 has 977
• District 2 has 760
• District 1 has 374
• District 4 has 124

In other nearby counties as of Thursday:

• San Joaquin County has 492 COVID-19-related deaths among 21,994 cases.
  
  
• Merced County has 155 deaths among 9,623 cases.
  
  
• Tuolumne County has 288 cases and six deaths.
  
  
• Mariposa County has 80 cases and two deaths.

As of Thursday evening, there were 924,323 confirmed cases in California and 17,571 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. There were 8,947,830 U.S. cases and 228,675 deaths.

Vintage Faire tweaks Santa plans

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Stanislaus risks backslide on rules

Stanislaus County barely made the cut Tuesday for staying in the coronavirus program’s red tier but residents will have to work hard to avoid a backslide to tighter state restrictions on local businesses.

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Youngest Turlock students return to campuses

Turlock Unified, the largest district in Stanislaus County so far to begin reopening TK-6 in-person instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic under a waiver from the state, welcomed transitional kindergartners and kindergartners to school campuses Monday morning.

The latest on local museums and galleries

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Early voting is a hit in Stanislaus

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Modesto and Kansas experts offer Halloween advice

An online forum Wednesday featured expert advice on how to safely celebrate Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos. One speaker was Dr. ChrisAnna Mink, a Modesto Bee health reporter. The other was Dr. Danielle Johnson, a clinical psychologist with the University of Kansas Health System. McClatchy newsrooms teamed up for the event.

Timely story from Modesto family wracked by suicide

Mitchell Brownlee was only 21 when the Modesto native took his own life in 2016. His family shared his story at a time when COVID-19 has added new stresses for vulnerable people.

From around the state, nation and world

Dr. Anthony Fauci gave a strong recommendation toward a national mask mandate as COVID-19 cases continue to climb across the United States.

Several states have announced that they want to independently review a coronavirus vaccine when one becomes available before distributing it to the public.

Some people with the coronavirus experience strange symptoms that linger for months long after a negative test result deems them clear of infection.

John Holland

The Modesto Bee

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John Holland covers agriculture, transportation and general assignment news. He has been with The Modesto Bee since 2000 and previously worked at newspapers in Sonora and Visalia. He was born and raised in San Francisco and has a journalism degree from UC Berkeley.