San Benito County Public Health officials are reporting that the number of new daily cases of Covid-19 continues to rise within the county.
As of Nov. 18, there have been 1,652 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the county, which is an increase of 175 cases reported since Nov. 2. The local death count remains at 15, according to county officials.
Confirmed cases include patients who have since recovered and those who are deceased.
The county’s Covid-19 dashboard shows that there are currently 83 active cases with nine new cases as of Nov. 18. There have been 18,275 patients tested for the novel coronavirus locally. Of these, 16,601 have tested negative and 1,554 patients have recovered.
The data from the Public Health Services’ latest community newsletter shows that of the 1,652 positive cases of Covid-19, 58 patients are in the 0-4 age group; 416 are in the 5-24 age group; 721 are in the 25-49; 318 patients are in the 50-64 age group; and 138 are age 64 or older.
The newsletter also shows that San Benito County dropped down to the most restricted purple tier, or “Substantial” risk level.
The county, according to state data, had a case rate of 15.8 daily new cases per 100,000 residents and a test positivity rate of 6.3 percent for the week ending Nov. 10. The “widespread” risk level factors include more than seven daily new cases per 100,000 residents, and a positivity rate of more than 8 percent.
The new numbers are a huge jump from the previous data that showed 6.2 daily new cases per 100,000 residents and a test positivity rate of 3.1 percent for the week ending Oct. 31.
At a minimum, counties must remain in a tier for at least three weeks before moving forward from the purple “widespread” tier back to to the red “substantial” tier after meeting the criteria of the less restrictive level for 14 consecutive days. Data is reviewed weekly and tiers are updated on Tuesdays.
