COVID-19 update: Tulare County edging towards less-restrictive tier as vaccinations go up

Tulare County is moving closer to exiting California's most restrictive COVID-19 tier, a development that could see the return of indoor dining and movie theaters reopening by as early as April. 

Total weekly cases over last week were down by 20%, marking the sixth week of COVID-19 metrics declines in Tulare County, said Timothy Lutz, director of Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency. 

In another good sign, hospitalizations in Tulare County were down a combined 45% over the last two weeks, Lutz said. 

As of Wednesday, the county's COVID-19 daily case rate is 18 per 100,000 population, and the positivity rate is 7%. The county scored 9.5% in the state's Healthy Place Index.

To move from the state's most restrictive COVID-19 purple tier, the county must report fewer than eight daily cases per 100,000 residents, have a test positivity under 8% for 14 consecutive days and fall below 8% in HPI. 

While Tulare County is stuck in the purple tier with most of the state, two California counties — Marin and San Mateo counties, both wealthy suburbs of San Francisco — moved Tuesday to the less-restrictive red tier. Mariposa County is also in the red tier. 

Even with the slowing new infection rates in Tulare County, February's 131 COVID-19-related fatalities marked the second-worst month for COVID-19-related fatalities since the pandemic started in March 2020. 

Deaths are the sad and final lagging indicator of the pandemic, reflecting on the more than 24,000 COVID-19 infections in Tulare County over December and January. 

As of Tuesday, 37,985 people in Tulare County have received at least their first shot in the two-dose regimen, while 9,929 people have received both shots. The county has received 59,283 doses of vaccine, up by 10,575 doses from the prior week. 

The county will see a boost to those vaccine numbers soon. Gov. Gavin Newsom said 11 mobile clinics will open in the Central Valley, including four in Tulare County.

Those mobile clinics will be used mainly to vaccinate farmworkers who don’t have transportation to larger vaccination sites or can’t navigate the state’s online signup portal.

As Tulare County and California vaccinate more people, the White House promised on Tuesday that more help is also on the way.

States can expect about 14.5 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine this week, an almost 70% increase in distribution over the last month, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

And White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients told governors on Tuesday the number of doses sent directly to pharmacies will increase by about 100,000 this week, Psaki said.

People who qualify for vaccines in Tulare County can get their shots through a pharmacy with federal allocations or county-run vaccine clinics. If or when FEMA opens the rumored mass vaccination center at the Save Mart Center on the campus of Fresno State, people who qualify for the inoculation can get the shot there, too. 

In other vaccine news, Johnson & Johnson revealed Tuesday that initial supplies of its one-shot vaccine will be limited to 20 million doses by the end of March.

Federal health officials say a total of 700 million doses is still slated for delivery by late July. That would be enough to reach the goal of providing enough shots for every American adult.

The stepped-up vaccine efforts come as the COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. surpassed 500,000, far more than any other country.

Since the pandemic hit Tulare County in mid-March, 47,730 people have been infected, and 739 people have died from COVID-19 complications.

James Ward covers entertainment, news, sports and lifestyles for the Visalia Times-Delta/Tulare Advance-Register. Follow him on Twitter. Get alerts and keep up on all things Tulare County for as little as $1 a month. Subscribe today.