Fourth Kern County COVID-19 surge expected to peak tomorrow

January 26, 2022 /

With 1,620 newly reported confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kern, the county’s total confirmed cases have now surpassed 200,000.

According to the Kern County Public Health Services Department, there were 309 COVID-19 related hospitalizations and 53 ICU patients as of yesterday. Additionally, Kern County’s seven-day case rate has increased heavily in the last three weeks.

“As of yesterday our case rate was 175.3 per 100,000 people,” said Brynn Carrigan, Director of the Kern County Public Health Services Department, during Tuesday morning’s Board of Supervisor meeting. “At my presentation to your board three weeks ago, it was 15.2 per 100,000 people.”

Carrigan stated that Public Health will continue to monitor and review the State’s modeling for planning purposes in Kern County. It was also stated that the model is currently predicting that Kern County will hit a peak of COVID-19 patient census in the hospitals tomorrow with 337 COVID-19 patients.

Although Kern’s pre-hospital and hospital systems continue to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, state-staffed teams have arrived in Kern County to expand both regular and ICU bed capacity.

As of yesterday, 1,096,988 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to Kern County residents; 456,712 or 53.4 percent of Kern’s eligible population—five and older—have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Additionally, 35 percent of the booster eligible population has received their COVID-19 booster.

“According to the Department of Public Health, unvaccinated California’s are four times more likely to get COVID-19, six times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 and 17.8 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than fully vaccinated Californians,” Carrigan shared.

A chart shared by Carrigan reveal that, since January 1, 2021, Kern County has had 111,675 confirmed COVID-19 cases. 91,957, or 82.3 percent, of these cases have been in unvaccinated individuals.

Carrigan also provided a chart depicting data from each COVID-19 surge that Kern County has experienced.

Free at home COVID-19 tests have already begun to be dispersed by the United States Postal Service (USPS). These tests can be ordered by visiting usps.com/covidtests.

“Individuals are not required to report COVID-19 home test results to Public Health,” wrote Michelle Corson, Program Manager/Public Relations Officer at the Kern County Public Health Services Department. “However, home test kits recommend an individual that tests positive to contact their healthcare provider and report positive results by following the instructions on the home test kit or to Kern County Public Health at  www.kerpublichealth.com/covidhomeresults.”

In addition, Public Health has been coordinating mobile COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites throughout the county. A map with this information can be found on our here

Vaccines and testing can also be found at the following locations throughout Kern County:

  • 1/25/22- 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Boys & Girls Club Lamont (vaccines and boosters only)
    • 8301 Segrue Rd, Lamont, CA, 93241
  • 1/30/22- 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Arvin Veterans Hall
    • 414 4th Ave. Arvin, CA 93203
  • 2/2/22- 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Maricopa Unified School District
    • 955 Stanislaus St. Maricopa, CA 93252
  • 2/6/22- 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Wasco (old) Courthouse
    • 810 8th St, Wasco, CA, 93280