The latest from the county I live in. Nazi Newsom laughs with glee while breadwinners in this county cannot work to feed their families.
COUNTY CORONAVIRUS CASES TAKE ANOTHER BIG JUMP
• Up 40 percent in two weeks
Today marks the end of another week used by Gov. Gavin Newsom to measure the progress Monterey County is making against the coronavirus epidemic, and this week's numbers were not good, according to the Monterey County health department.
Despite the strict shutdown and social distancing rules in effect, the latest data show 110 more cases this week than the week before — and 140 more than there were two weeks ago, a 40 percent increase.
The surge raises our 7-day average per 100,000 residents to 15.1 — more than double the 7.0 needed for additional parts of our economy to be allowed to reopen. It's also the highest average the county has had since the middle of September.
New coronavirus cases over the last seven days were, as always, mostly reported in Salinas and the Salinas Valley, which had 369. The Monterey Peninsula had 61, including 21 in Seaside, 14 in Monterey and 11 in Marina. Pacific Grove had six cases over the last week, Carmel Valley had 3, Carmel area (93923) had 2, Pebble Beach had one case, and Carmel-by-the-Sea and Big Sur had none. Three cases in the Peninsula were reported without a specific location.
The continuing and brutal divide in the county between areas that have lots of cases and the ones that have very few is likely to increase pressure on county and state officials to control the hot spots — either that, or to let sectors such as indoor dining reopen in places like Carmel and Pebble Beach. This concern will ramp up even more as winter weather sets in, considering that the restaurant-rich Monterey Peninsula is not only a major source of tax revenue for governments at all levels, it's a major source of employment for blue collar workers.
One way to do that would be to let businesses reopen by zip code. Of the county's 32 residential zip codes, 18 currently have a 7-day average infection rate below 7.0 (see "cases by zip code" table below). In eight of those zip codes, the 7-day infection rate is zero. In 14 zip codes, the 7-day average rate is above 7.0; five of those have an average above 20. However, state and county officials have been stalwart that no such division of the county for shutdown purposes is possible.
Along with the rise in cases in Monterey County has come an increase in the testing positivity rate. To move from the
Purple Tier and into the Red Tier in the state's economic shutdown scheme, the 7-day positive rate has to be lower than 8.0. Monterey County's stands at 11.23 percent.
There were five new coronavirus-related fatalities this week, the county health department said, bringing the total since the epidemic began to 101. The county's death rate for people who test positive for the virus is now .0002175, or 217.5 per million residents. Also, 28 more people were hospitalized with the virus this week. On Friday, CHOMP said it had five inpatients with the virus, while SVMH reported 19 and Natividad said it had 11.
For details about Monterey County's latest data, as reported by the California Department of Public Health, click
here. To see the most up-to-date charts and tables from the county health department, click
here. Below, you can also find the updated versions of our charts showing coronavirus infections countywide and in the Monterey Peninsula, along with the data for hospitalizations and our chart breaking down Monterey County's coronavirus cases and infection rates by zip code. Please check these charts and tables for the latest data on coronavirus cases in your community.
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