Coronavirus Update, Jan. 18, 2021: Stanislaus County hospitalizations stay above 300
Stanislaus County’s nagging hospitalizations continued to rise on Sunday after a big drop the day before.
There were 318 patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the area’s health care facilities a day after that number had dropped to 303, the lowest in a few weeks.
The number of available staffed adult intensive care unit beds rose to five for just the second time in the last 11 days.
On Sunday, the county reported 412 more positive test results. It also reported zero deaths, although in recent weeks none have been reported on Sundays.
Stanislaus County’s current 14-day infection rate of a staggering 20.07% is a 4.5% increase over the previous 14 days, in line with what local health officials predicted from the fallout of the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays. San Joaquin County’s 14-day rate is 16.8%, up 1.9%, Merced’s is 28%, up 8.7% and Tuolumne County’s is 19.8%, down 8%.
The news Sunday came as the state released its latest figures, through Saturday, of a single-day positivity rate for the county at 20.23%. It sent the 14-day rolling rate to slightly above the day before and well head of the state’s 12.5% rate, which has been decline in recent days.
The 123 deaths in the county since Dec. 31, and the 53 since last Monday, leaves the county with the sixth highest death rate per 100,000 residents in the last seven days among the county’s 58 counties. The county’s infection rate per 100,000 residents over the last seven days is 19th highest, according to the Los Angeles Times tracker.
The county’s overall death rate per 100,000 residents since its first reported fatality in April is fourth highest in the state behind Imperial, Inyo and Los Angeles counties.
The county’s positive tests for the virus Sunday brings to 42,337 the total since its first case in March. Stanislaus has 354,572 negative test results and 36,399 residents who are presumed recovered.
A stay-at-home order has been in place since Dec. 6 because of tight ICU capacity in Stanislaus and 11 other counties in the San Joaquin Valley Region. The threshold to get out of the order is a projection of 15%. As of Saturday, the San Joaquin and Southern California regions were at 0%. The Bay Area was at 3.4%, the Sacramento area at 6.2% and the rest of Northern California at 24%.
Based on future projections, Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted the month-long order in the Sacramento Region, citing the stabilization of the 13-county area’s ICU capacity.
In terms of vaccinations, as of Saturday, 33,850 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been allocated to Stanislaus County, up from 25,225 in previous days. Of those, 18,960 were to health care providers and 14,890 to public health. The numbers do not include federal allocations to staff and residents at nursing care facilities and some provided directly to hospital systems.
The county is vaccinating residents considered to be in Phase 1A, Tiers 1, 2 and 3 and Phase 1B, Tier 1, which includes those over the ages of 65, community health workers, public health field staff, in-home supportive services and dental and oral health clinics, among others.
There are three groupings, or tiers, of residents or worker classifications in Phase 1A, two in Phase 1B and one in Phase 1C.
Information regarding vaccinations in Stanislaus County is on the county dashboard at http://schsa.org/coronavirus/vaccine/.
The county will open a second vaccination center at Stanislaus State on Tuesday. Its current Scenic Drive site that opened last week was moved to the more patient-friendly Modesto Centre Plaza on L Street in downtown. It opens Monday morning.
Meanwhile, Save Mart announced Friday it was scheduling appointments for eligible people, including healthcare workers and seniors 65 years and older, to receive a COVID-19 vaccination at selected pharmacies in Modesto, Ceres, Riverbank and Patterson. The supermarket chain said it received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine and was working with the county to administer it safely.
A news release said Save Mart’s pharmacists are trained to administer COVID vaccines; they routinely provide annual flu shots and other vaccinations to customers. There is no charge to the recipient for the COVID vaccine.
Eligible residents can call to make an appointment at these Save Mart pharmacies: 2100 Standiford Ave. in Modesto 209-577-1350; 3601 Pelandale Avenue, Modesto 209-545-1385; 2916 E. Whitmore Ave. in Ceres 209-566-7485; 1035 Sperry Ave., Patterson 209-892-4545; and 2237 Claribel Road, Riverbank 209-863-1483.
Pharmacy hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The pharmacies were receiving a high volume of calls, a Save Mart representative said.
Here are the demographic breakdowns of the positive tests in Stanislaus County as of Sunday:
- 53.7% are female
- 46.3% male
- 7.7% are 14 years or younger
- 16.5% are ages 15 to 24
- 19.7% are 25 to 34
- 17.4% are 35 to 44
- 15% are 45 to 54
- 12% are 55 to 64
- 6.5% are 65 to 74
- 3.4% are 75 to 84
- 1.9% are 85 or older.
- Though they make up 47 percent of the population, Latinos represented 63.7 percent of the positive cases.
Geographically:
- Modesto has 15,302 positive cases
- Turlock has 5,619
- Ceres has 4,406
- Patterson has 2,102
- Riverbank has 1,895
- Oakdale has 1,302
- Newman has 948
- Waterford has 489
- Hughson has 435
- Supervisorial District 3 has 2,177
- District 5 has 2,025
- District 2 has 1,720
- District 1 has 983
- District 4 has 312
- San Joaquin County has 748 COVID-19-related deaths among 56,484 cases.
- Merced County has 296 deaths among 23,492 cases.
- Tuolumne County has 3,304 cases and 38 deaths.
- Mariposa County has 344 cases and four deaths.
As of Monday morning, there were 2,991,731 confirmed cases in California and 33,623 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. There were 23,938,290 U.S. cases and 397,611 deaths.
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From around the state, nation and world
California laboratories conducting genetic sequencing are increasingly finding yet another COVID-19 variant that concerns researchers, prompting the California Department of Public Health to hold an unusual, last-minute press conference Sunday evening.
President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, on Sunday described the new administration’s plans to fix what he called a “huge mess” of COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
A team of scientists and doctors developed a DNA test that they say can more quickly diagnose hospitalized COVID-19 patients with other infections, such as pneumonia, while on a mechanical ventilator battling for their life.
This story was originally published January 18, 2021 at 6:27 AM.
