The vast majority of San Joaquin County patients to die from COVID-19 had cardiovascular disease and diabetes as underlying conditions.
There have been 146 deaths as of 3:25 p.m. Wednesday. That is up from 118 of Monday.

The San Joaquin County Health Department coronavirus dashboard now indicates that 43.2 percent of those that died also had diabetes, 40.4 percent cardiovascular disease, 17.1 percent chronic lung disease, and 8.2 percent asthma. The numbers do not add up to 100 percent due to victims having more than one underlying conditions.

The fatality rate for those that test positive in San Joaquin County is at 1.3 percent, up from 1.1 percent earlier in the week.

There are now 6,095 people who are positive for COVID-19. Many are not — and will not become — ill or never will be sick enough to require hospitalization. There were 286 new cases reported on the latest update.

To date, 4,114 people that previously tested positive have retested as negative allowing them to be identified as recovered. That includes people who had been sick as well as those that tested positive and never got sick. Between those with the virus currently and those that have recovered, there have been 11,209 cases in San Joaquin County out of a population of 760,000.

The ICU bed situation in Manteca has changed since Monday. There are now 10 COVID-19 patients in ICU beds — 5 each at Doctors Hospital of Manteca as well as Kaiser Foundation Hospital of Manteca. The number of overall COVID-19 patients in Manteca hospitals is still at 23.

Overall there are 85 patients in ICU beds throughout the county with another 43 beds used by patients with other critical health issues. That reflects a licensed capacity of 129 percent meaning 30 non-ICU licensed beds have been converted to ICU beds.

There are 751 beds in the county’s seven hospitals in use with 248 of those occupied by COVID-19 patients. As of Wednesday 76 percent of all available beds were in use.

In the past week Stockton has gone from 4,014 cases to 5,257, Lodi from 750 to 970, Manteca from 729 to 970, Tracy from 619 to 832, Lathrop from 215 to 281, Ripon from 84 to 105, and Escalon from 55 to 63,

Those who don’t become ill that have tested positive as well as others who may have the virus and have not been tested who also may never get ill are all considered capable of transmitting COVID-19 to those that are vulnerable. That is why the state has mandated the seemingly healthy people need to wear face masks when required as well as social distance and wash hands to reduce the virus’s spread.

In a bid to help bring the surge under control San Joaquin County Emergency Medical Services Administrator Dan Burch is also advising people to stay home as much as possible; avoid people outside your household; wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds; cover your cough or sneeze; frequently clean and disinfect touched objects and surfaces; and to stay away from work, school or other people if you become sick with respiratory symptoms like fever and cough.
The county health department on Wednesday issued a revised order to require all schools — public and private — to stay in distance learning mode until San Joaquin County has been off the state monitoring list for 14 days.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com