San Benito County Public Health officials are reporting the number of new Covid-19 cases continuing to rise in the county including another death in their latest newsletter.
As of Dec. 7, county officials reported a 19th death and 2,177 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in San Benito County. It’s the first death reported since Dec. 4 and third death reported this month.
Confirmed cases include patients who have since recovered and those who are deceased.
The county’s Covid-19 dashboard shows that there are currently 299 active cases with 18 new cases as of Monday, Dec. 7. There’s been 20,967 tested for the novel coronavirus locally. Of these, 18,755 have tested negative and 1,859 patients have recovered.
The data from the Public Health Services’ latest community newsletter shows that of the 2,177 positive cases of Covid-19, 74 patients are in the 0-4 age group; 554 are in the 5-24 age group; 967 are in the 25-49; 408 patients are in the 50-64 age group; and 173 are age 64 or older.
County public health officials also report that the number of new daily cases of Covid-19 continue to climb, slowing down any progress to move into the next level of the California Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
The state of California has announced a regional stay-at-home order in the San Joaquin Valley region—which includes San Benito County—due to the declining availability of hospital beds that may be needed to treat the growing surge of Covid-19 patients.
Business activities and facilities that must close under the new order include indoor and outdoor restaurants, hair salons, gyms and indoor recreational facilities and bars, breweries and distilleries.
The data from the community newsletter shows that San Benito County continues to be at the most restricted purple “widespread” risk level as of Dec. 7. The county, according to state data, had a case rate of 31 daily new cases per 100,000 residents and a test positivity rate of 7.1 percent from Nov. 19-25.
The “widespread” risk level factors is more than seven daily new cases per 100,000 residents, and a positivity rate of more than 8 percent.
The statewide data shows 30.2 daily new cases per 100,000 residents and a test positivity rate of 6.4 percent from Nov. 19-25.
At a minimum, counties must remain in a tier for at least three weeks before moving forward from the purple “widespread” tier to the red “substantial” tier after meeting the criteria of the less restrictive level for 14 consecutive days.
The limits for the “substantial” tier are no more than 4 to 7 daily new cases per 100,000 residents, and a positivity rate between 5-8 percent.
