Coronavirus

Coronavirus update, March 14: Stanislaus cases remain level, away from move to red

As the rest of the state seemingly improves on its daily case rate, Stanislaus County remains flat, neither rising much, but worse, nor dropping to a point where it could reach the less restrictive red tier.

On Saturday, the county reported 69 new cases, about 14 more than it needs on a daily average to leave the most restrictive purple tier, which keeps schools, restaurants and other businesses from, at the very least, opening more fully with restrictions.

As the the county’s daily, seven- and 14-day positivity rates ticked upward slightly on Saturday, the Los Angeles times daily tracker showed the county moving into third among the 58 counties when it comes to new cases over the past seven days. Only No. 1 Merced and No. 2 Inyo counties were higher.

In addition, the county announced three more deaths to COVID-19 on Saturday to bring that total to 969 since its first death was reported in April, according to the Health Services Agency.

Positive tests grew by 69 on Saturday to a total of 51,663. Stanislaus also has 476,442 negative test results and 49,910 people who are presumed recovered.

Other details:

Hospital cases: The county’s five hospitals reported 98 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, up from 95 on Friday. The count has topped 100 only once in the past two weeks and is far below the 300-plus in early January. But it had been at 78 a week ago. The hospitals had 11 staffed intensive-care beds available to adults Saturday, versus eight on Friday.

Infection rates: The single-day infection rate was 6.38%, up from 5.33% the previous day, according to the state website. The rolling seven-day rate was 6.62%, up from 6.59%. The 14-day rate was 6.39%, up from 6.33%.

According to the Los Angeles Times COVID-19 tracker, Stanislaus County has the third highest rate of infection per 100,000 residents in the last week. Its rate of death also is 21st highest. Since the pandemic’s start, its infection rate remains 15th highest and the death rate fourth highest among all California counties.

Stanislaus remains in the purple tier, meaning the virus is “widespread,” following the state’s latest assessment of conditions Friday. It seeks to reach red, orange and finally yellow, with few limits on business and gatherings. That is not expected when new tier ratings are announced Tuesday.

Vaccines: As of Saturday, 121,870 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been allocated to Stanislaus County, up sharply from 91,800 on Wednesday. This includes 62,257 doses to health care providers and 59,613 to public health.

There is one scheduled vaccination clinic next week: Thursday, March 18, Modesto Centre Plaza, 9 a.m.m-5 p.m.: Second dose only, Pfizer.

More information is on the county dashboard at http://schsa.org/coronavirus/vaccine/.

California has administered 11,881,857 vaccines as of Saturday, up from 11,428,034 on Friday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracker. The state ranks 43rd in the country, having administered 28,923 doses per 100,000 residents. It had been in the low 30s a week ago. Alaska ranks first, Georgia 50th among the states.

It’s important to note that if you’ve had part or full vaccination, wearing a mask and keeping with all the safety precautions like social distancing is still recommended by the Centers for Disease for Control and Prevention. Also, those who have had COVID-19 still need to be vaccinated.

Case demographics: Here are the breakdowns of the positive tests in Stanislaus County as of Friday:

  • 53.5% are female
  • 46.5% male
  • 8.3% are 14 years or younger
  • 16.4% are ages 15 to 24
  • 19.3% are 25 to 34
  • 17.2% are 35 to 44
  • 14.9% are 45 to 54
  • 12.1% are 55 to 64
  • 6.6% 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 19,107 positive cases
  • Turlock has 6,977
  • Ceres has 5,277
  • Patterson has 2,467
  • Riverbank has 2,397
  • Oakdale has 1,704
  • Newman has 1,146
  • Waterford has 624
  • Hughson has 567
  • Supervisorial District 3 has 2,686
  • District 5 has 2,472
  • District 2 has 2,138
  • District 1 has 1,209
  • District 4 has 397

Here’s a look at the numbers from nearby counties through Friday:

As of Sunday morning, there were 3,620,890 confirmed cases in California and 56,426 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. There were 29,401,156 U.S. cases and 533,315 deaths.

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This story was originally published March 14, 2021 at 6:35 AM.

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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