Kern County Public Health: Latest COVID-19 facts as of Feb. 15

• There are 881 newly reported confirmed cases in Kern County bringing our total confirmed cases to date to 229,034.

• There are three new deaths being reported February 15 and a total of 2,077 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

• The seven-day case rate is 53.5 per 100,000.

• As of February 14, 1,136,596 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to Kern County residents. 54.6% of Kern’s eligible population and 50.7% of Kern’s total population have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

• As of February 14, Kern County had 198 COVID-19 related hospitalizations and 43 are in the ICU.

On February 16, the State’s masking mandate officially reverted to pre-surge requirements, no longer requiring those who are fully vaccinated to mask indoors. Also, on February 14 Secretary Mark Ghaly held a press conference where he indicated that on February 28, the State will be reassessing case rates, test positivity, hospitalizations, pediatric hospitalizations, and vaccine rates for future potential change to the statewide school masking mandate. Current guidance for use of face masks can be found here http://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/guidance-for-face-coverings.aspx.

Public Health continues to recommend that any individual utilizing a COVID-19 self-test 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 http://www.kernpublichealth.com/covidhomeresults.

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.