Kern Public Health: 1,542 new coronavirus cases, 4 new deaths reported

Dec. 8—Kern County Public Health reported 1,542 new coronavirus cases and four new deaths from the virus Thursday in its weekly update.

The new cases bring the total number reported in Kern County residents since the start of the pandemic to 297,405, with 2,579 total deaths.

There have been 5,283 confirmed cases of the omicron variant, and 4,158 cases of the delta variant in the county. Kern County Public Health labels those as "variants of concern."

According to the state, 68 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Kern County as of Wednesday, the most recent figure available. The state data indicated six patients were hospitalized in intensive care units as of Wednesday.

Since Jan. 21, 71.62 percent of all cases have been reported in unvaccinated individuals and 83.20 percent of all hospitalizations have occurred among the unvaccinated.

Broken down by age, 55,083 people under the age of 18 have contracted COVID-19, followed by 166,850 people aged 18 to 49, 48,048 people aged 50 to 64 and 25,340 people 65 and older.

The public can find more data on Kern County Public Health Services' COVID-19 dashboard at https://kernpublichealth.com/covid-19_dashboard.

The health department is reminding residents they can find testing locations by going to kernpublichealth.com, clicking on the COVID-19 button and looking for "find a testing site near you."

The public can go to https://kernpublichealth.com/coronavirus-vaccine/ for current vaccination information.