MADERA — Madera County reported four more confirmed cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases countywide to 94.
“The last two days we’ve had nine new cases, which has been higher than our daily average,” said Sarah Bosse, the County’s health director. “We’re watching that closely.” Bosse said that since the pandemic began, the county has been averaging between 0 and 2 cases a day.
One of the latest cases, a woman in her 80s, is serious enough to warrant hospitalization, Bosse said.
With Madera County moving deeper into phase 2 of the governor’s so-called “Road Map to Reopening,” Dr. Simon Paul, the county’s health officer, cautioned county residents to be prudent when going out into the public again.
“We still want people to be really careful when they’ve out doing stuff,” Dr. Paul added. “Avoiding large gatherings, practicing social distancing and wearing face masks is still very important.”
Bosse reported Wednesday during Supervisor Tom Wheeler’s Zoom Town Hall meting that 36 people were tested last week for COVID-19 in Oakhurst by the County’s mobile testing lab. That mobile unit is scheduled to be in Bass Lake next week and in Coarsegold and North Fork in the coming weeks too and county residents can make an appointment to be tested.
“All testing is free of any costs or co-pays,” Bosse said, adding that beginning next week, county health officials expect to begin reporting more specific information about the geographic location of new COVID-19 cases around the county. “We have not been able to do that up to now because our test numbers have not hit the threshold required [by the State] to reveal that information.”
MCDPH also reported Wednesday that 24 cases remain “active” while 68 people who were confirmed with the virus have now recovered.
Another victim, a man in his 70s, has been hospitalized with COVID-19 since March 30 while all of the other active cases are in home isolation with the exception of one of the latest cases reported today.
According to MCDPH, an additional 99 individuals are currently being “monitored,” with county officials now reporting having negative test results for a total of 2,350people.
Two Madera County residents, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 70s, died in late March from COVID-19. Both of those victims reportedly had underlying health conditions.
Two other local residents, a man in his 30s and another male under 20, were removed from the confirmed case list in the last week after their initial tests were deemed “false positives.”
For the latest update from MCDPH, click here.
As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, there were 101,031 confirmed COVID-19 cases across California, with the total number of deaths statewide now at 3,893.
Nationwide, according to Johns Hopkins, there have been 1.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases, with the U.S. death toll on Wednesday surpassing the 100,000 mark (100,047 as of 3 p.m.).
