Kern County Public Health: Latest COVID-19 facts as of Jan. 18

• There are 8,737 newly reported confirmed cases in Kern County bringing our total confirmed cases to date to 189,849. (As Jan. 17 was a county holiday, our dashboard was last updated Friday, Jan. 14)

• There are eight new deaths being reported on Jan. 18 and a total of 1,972 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

• The seven-day case rate is 155.3 per 100,000.

• As of Jan. 17, 1,081,315 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to Kern County residents. 453,361 or 53% of Kern’s eligible population have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

• As of Jan. 17, Kern County has 286 COVID-19 related hospitalizations and 44 are in the ICU.

Kern continues to experience high volumes of 911 calls that are taxing our entire emergency response system. We urge our residents to use the emergency system responsibly and call 911 only in a true emergency such as a heart attack, stroke or other serious health condition.

The demand for COVID-19 testing remains high in our community and statewide. In addition to our countywide infrastructure of partner testing sites, we coordinate mobile COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites throughout the county and a map with this information can be found on our website http://www.kernpublichealth.com.

Beginning Jan. 18, our COVID-19 testing and vaccination pop-up clinic will be located at Heritage Park in East Bakersfield. Walk-ups only, no appointments. Pfizer and J&J vaccines will be available.

Heritage Park clinic schedule:

Jan. 22 – 8 a.m. to noon.

Jan. 23 – 8 a.m. to noon.

The federal government is now offering free at-home COVID-19 tests that can be ordered online at COVIDtests.gov. Tests will usually ship within 7-12 days of ordering. To place an order, all you need is your name and residential address. No ID, credit card or health insurance information is required.