-May 25,2020-

Avenal State Prison COVID positive cases now over 200

As of May 25 COVID-19 positive cases have climbed to over 200 at Avenal State Prison in Kings County. The state reports the number on the Department of Corrections website. The cases have jumped from only a few a week ago to 56 as of May 21 to 197 incarcerated prisoners and 10 staff as of the latest posted count May 25.

Local ER visits drop 50% during pandemic 

Visalia’s Kaweah Dealt hospital has experienced almost a 50% drop in the number of ER visits as of April in a trend seen across the US. While some of that can be attributed to people staying inside, health experts say it’s also because those who need to go are afraid to go.

“People are keeping away from ERs across the country and probably doing themselves more harm than good,” said Saint Francis Hospital Chair of Emergency Medicine Dr. Steven Wolf in NY.

Nationally as the pandemic spread across the US and many stayed inside, health experts say that also led to people keeping away from emergency departments. While some of that can be attributed to fewer injuries from incidents like car accidents, not all of it can.

Urgent Care visits down too

It’s not just the emergency rooms at hospitals that have seen a downturn.Visalia’s Urgent Care centers run by Kaweah Delta have also seen dramatically fewer patients in the past two months.

The Demaree Urgent Care center saw just 26 patients a day in April compared to 112 patients day just two months earlier, before the virus hit say a report to the hospital board.

Kaweah Dealt has experienced a huge drop in the number of patients in most categories as elective procedures have been postponed. Even childbirth numbers (deliveries) in April were down about 20%. In May the hospital announced it would resume elective surgical procedures.

In April the hospital’s census was down about 20%.Total operating revenue in April amounted to a loss of nearly $12 million compared to their budget the board was advised at their May meeting.The healthcare district has received about the same amount from government funding to offset these higher costs.

KD says they have been seeing about 1700 patients a week by Telehealth visitation. In April the hospital estimated it had experienced $2.7 million in COVID- related costs.

Other hospitals report a decrease in trauma-injury incidents with Sacramento area hospitals saying they have seen 40% fewer such cases. Pedestrians and cyclists have experienced a 50% decline.

Fewer accidents reported

A recent UC Davis study estimates that since the Governor’s “shelter in place” order – collisions and especially injury and fatality collisions have been reduced by half, from ~1,000 collisions and ~400 injury/fatal accidents per day to 500 and 200 per day, respectively. They found that animal-related incidents did not experience the same reduction. Also traffic volumes were up to 60% lower on certain highways after the order compared to a similar period prior to the order, which may account for the reduced number of collisions. They said peak and average traffic speeds increased slightly on certain highways, but only by a few mph.

Credit card companies take hit

Oil analyst OPIS reports that since social distancing started in March, Credit Card companies have taken a 60% revenue hit on retail gasoline transactions.  Pump prices are down 35% and Volumes are off 42%, a double whammy for bank cards.

California traffic volume dropped 75%

Another UC Davis report says traffic volume dropped 75 percent in California dropping in total distance from 7.8 billion miles between March 2 to March 8 to 1.9 billion miles for the week of April 11 to April 17.