365NEWSX
365NEWSX
Subscribe

Welcome

California counties struggle with coronavirus case rate - Los Angeles Times

California counties struggle with coronavirus case rate - Los Angeles Times

California counties struggle with coronavirus case rate - Los Angeles Times
Sep 29, 2020 4 mins, 39 secs

It’s a metric that comes up often in conversations about reopening the economy in California, a passport to a more normal life amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Counties from Los Angeles to Butte and Sonoma to San Bernardino have stalled trying to log seven or fewer new cases of coronavirus per 100,000 residents each day.

The mouthful of a metric — known as the adjusted case rate — represents how many people are falling sick every day in a county.

The standard is part of the state’s attempt to strike a delicate balance that will avoid a surge in cases as restrictions are loosened.

COVID-19 death toll hits 1 million amid fears of renewed outbreaks.

COVID-19 death toll hits 1 million amid fears of renewed outbreaks.

The global COVID-19 death toll surpassed 1 million, one measurement of a scourge that has ravaged lives and economies and evoked an era of plagues.

Gavin Newsom unveiled a new system for reopening that assigns each county a tier based on how widespread transmission is.

The tier corresponds to what is allowed to reopen.

Counties can move to a less-restrictive tier by meeting benchmarks showing that spread has been reduced for two weeks in a row.

Sacramento County, for example, was long stuck in the purple tier — the most restrictive — in which most businesses deemed nonessential are either closed or allowed to operate only outdoors.

But last week, the state announced that the county had for the first time reduced its number of new daily cases to fewer than seven per 100,000 residents.

If Sacramento keeps up its progress, it could move into the red tier this week, allowing it to immediately restart indoor operations (with restrictions) at gyms, restaurants, museums, churches and other facilities, said Dr.

The current state system largely relies on just two metrics: the case rate and the positivity rate, which is the percentage of tests for the virus that come back positive.

These metrics were chosen, as opposed to the number of hospitalizations or deaths, because they should reveal relatively early whether cases are spiking in a region, Ghaly said.

To move from the purple tier to the red tier, a county’s positivity rate must be 8% or lower, while its daily case rate is seven or fewer per 100,000 residents.

The state has chosen to adjust the case number to account for how much testing each county is doing — it doesn’t want to penalize counties for catching more cases.

If counties perform more tests than the state average, their case rate will be slightly reduced; conversely, counties lagging the state average on testing will see their case rate adjusted upward.

In the most recent week for which data were released, Kern County logged 6.3 cases per 100,000 residents each day.

Yet the state recalculated Kern’s rate to account for the county’s less-than-average amount of testing.

That boosted its case rate to 7.2, above the threshold for moving to a lower tier.

By contrast, Los Angeles County’s case rate was dropped from 7.7 to 7.0 because of extensive testing.

Based on these adjusted rates, 11 counties, including Ventura, Kern and Monterey, are stuck in the purple tier with a case rate above 7.0, though their positivity rate is below 8%.

San Diego County, in the red tier, recently was close to moving back into purple because its case rate had begun to climb above 7.0.

continues to struggle with its case rate.

County public health director Barbara Ferrer said she anticipates that an increase in the case rate will disqualify the county from moving forward with reopening when new figures are released Tuesday.

The positivity rate has been below 3%, but the case rate will likely not stay in line, she said.

Social media takes COVID-19 shaming to new levels.

Social media takes COVID-19 shaming to new levels.

But the practice has taken on new aggression in the COVID-19 era.

has been that daily case rate; we had to get the adjusted rate down to seven new cases per 100,000 people,” Ferrer said Monday.

The fact that counties keep meeting the positivity rate requirements but not the case rate standards is by design, Ghaly said5

Once testing has increased, counties are able to use the cases identified for contact tracing and isolation, to ultimately reduce transmission.

“Watching all of that come together, it’s actually moving as we’ve hoped — that the test positivity comes down a little bit sooner than the case rate, and that allows counties to move forward with some degree of confidence to the next tier,” Ghaly said.

So much for shaking hands and kissing babies: How COVID-19 is reshaping L.A

So much for shaking hands and kissing babies: How COVID-19 is reshaping L.A

Many of the familiar rituals of stumping for votes are off the table during the COVID-19 pandemic, drastically changing what it looks like to run for office in L.A

County sees no post-Labor Day spike in coronavirus numbers

County sees no post-Labor Day spike in coronavirus numbers

County reports an average of 1,074 new daily cases for the week ending Sept

The Southern California median home price rose 12% in August, as people took advantage of rock-bottom interest rates amid the COVID-19 outbreak

Orange County

Orange County

County to let them

County to let them

County supervisors and health director Barbara Ferrer are under pressure to issue waivers that would allow elementary schools to open

As some push for faster COVID-19 reopenings, Newsom warns of a possible second wave

As some push for faster COVID-19 reopenings, Newsom warns of a possible second wave

Even as coronavirus infections seem to be ebbing in the state, officials warn that transmission rates are creeping up, possibly presaging a surge in cases

Summarized by 365NEWSX ROBOTS

RECENT NEWS

SUBSCRIBE

Get monthly updates and free resources.

CONNECT WITH US

© Copyright 2024 365NEWSX - All RIGHTS RESERVED