Coronavirus update, Dec. 13: Relentless COVID spike continues in Stanislaus County
Latest facts on COVID-19 testing in Modesto area
As health officials predicted for months, the mix of cold weather and holidays would bring with it a big spike in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
That fact was never more true than in Stanislaus County, which is cementing itself as one of the hardest hit areas in California, according to data released by the county and state on Saturday.
In numbers from Saturday:
– The county announced five more deaths, which gives it 40 for the month, already surpassing the total in all of November. The 468 deaths since the pandemic started gives a rate of 85 deaths per 100,000 residents, the worst among its neighboring counties and one of the highest in the state.
– As the availability of staffed adult intensive care beds in the state-designated San Joaquin Valley Region fell to 0% on Saturday, the county saw its hospitalizations grow to 304, more than seven times the number that was seen in recent weeks. Though the 16th most populous county in the state, Stanislaus County has the ninth highest hospitalizations. It has the 12th highest ICU patients, and just four remaining adult ICU beds left.
– The county reported Saturday 425 more positive cases, raising its rolling 14-day infection rate to 15.4, which is the highest since Aug. 22. A week before Halloween, it was 4.5%, just off its low of 3.7% on Oct. 1.
The new data Saturday gives the county 26,361 positive cases with 22,410 who are presumed recovered. There have been 254,285 negative tests.
The demographic breakdowns of the positive tests as of Saturday:
- 54% are female
- 46% male
- 8% are 14 years or younger
- 16% are ages 15 to 24
- 20% 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 9,469 positive cases
- Turlock has 3,574
- Ceres has 2,858
- Patterson has 1,290
- Riverbank has 1,180
- Oakdale has 748
- Newman has 542
- Waterford has 309
- Hughson has 255
- Supervisorial District 5 has 1,390
- District 3 has 1,364
- District 2 has 1,113
- District 1 has 599
- District 4 has 166
- San Joaquin County has 534 COVID-19-related deaths among 31,720 cases.
- Merced County has 207 deaths among 14,483 cases.
- Tuolumne County has 1,547 cases and 17 deaths.
- Mariposa County has 174 cases and four deaths.
As of Sunday morning, there were 1,553,908 confirmed cases in California and 20,977 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. There were 16,067,965 U.S. cases and 297,843 deaths.
COVID keeps spreading at Stanislaus nursing facilities
Ongoing outbreaks pushed the number of COVID-19 cases among nursing home residents in Stanislaus County past new records this week.
Where will patients go for ICU care?
The number of staffed intensive care unit beds available in Stanislaus County fell to just four of the approximately 115 beds, or 4.6%, on Friday. The capacity of ICU beds in the San Joaquin Valley region, Stanislaus County’s next tier for medical resources, is also stretched to its limit, with only 4.5% of staffed beds available.
Details on vaccine rollout in Stanislaus
Nearly 4,000 doses of Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine have been allocated to Stanislaus County, but don’t roll up your sleeves just yet. First in line are health care workers in acute care hospitals with the highest risk for exposure.
So what exactly has closed here?
While in many ways the order is similar to the one issued in March, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, there are significant differences in Stanislaus and nearby counties.
Stan State and sister campuses eye fall 2021
Spurred by the approval of coronavirus vaccines, the 23-campus California State University is planning to return to mostly in-person learning by fall 2021, according to an announcement Wednesday from outgoing CSU Chancellor Timothy White.
High schools pause athletic conditioning
With Stanislaus County under a new stay-at-home order due to the spread of the coronavirus and available hospital ICUs falling under 15% capacity, the county’s health department has suspended athletic conditioning workouts for all high schools.
Tenth Street Place limits public again
Modesto has closed its offices to the public at Tenth Street Place, the city-county government center in downtown, because of the spike in COVID-19 and the governor’s recent stay-at-home order for the San Joaquin Valley.
How to help Stanislaus businesses survive holidays
Modesto and Stanislaus County restaurants and retailers suggest best ways to help them survive new COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home lockdown order.
What Modesto neighborhood has highest rate of cases?
The Modesto ZIP code 95351 has the highest rate of coronavirus cases in Stanislaus County, showing how the pandemic affects low-income and Latino communities. One family tells a heartbreaking story.
From around the state, nation and world
The seven-day rolling average of deaths per day in the U.S. rose to 2,360, up from 1,477 at the end of November, according to the COVID Tracking Project. The seven-day rolling average of new confirmed cases also has jumped, to 210,765 from 166,123 on Nov. 27.
The first trucks carrying a COVID-19 vaccine for widespread use in the United States were set to pull out of a Michigan manufacturing plant Sunday, with the shots that are critical to stopping the nation’s coronavirus outbreak destined to reach states a day later.
In San Joaquin County, part of California’s vast Central Valley that produces most of the country’s fruits and vegetables, the coronavirus is spreading like a weed and the hospitals are running out of beds for the sickest patients.
This story was originally published December 13, 2020 at 6:02 AM.
