COVID rate drops, but still very high risk

This week’s COVID-19 data, gathered by the New York Times and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, moves Madera County from the purple zone to the red zone. However, the risk of contracting the virus is still “very high risk.”

The number of cases in the county have decreased by 51 percent from the two-week average reported on Feb. 8, and the number of hospitalized patients and deaths has also fallen. But, intensive care unit occupancy is still very high, as is the test positivity rate.

Madera County now shows a two-week average of 33 cases a day, and at least 15,274 cases have been reported since the beginning of the pandemic.

The scale that is used to gauge the risk of infection starts with very low risk at less than 10 cases per 100,000 population over a two week period; medium risk, 10 to 39 cases; high risk, 40 to 159 cases; very high risk, 160 to 639 cases; and extremely high risk, 640 cases or more. Based on Madera County’s two-week average, there have been 432 new cases reported since Feb. 8.

Data developed since the beginning of the pandemic indicate that at least 1 in 10 residents residents in the county have been infected over the past year.

Maderans are urged to continue to wear face masks in public, practice social distancing, and wash hands well and frequently.