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The rate Ventura County’s coronavirus tests come back positive climbed over a threshold set by the state last weekend.

But it apparently fell below that mark by Monday.

The positivity rate had reached 8.2% over the weekend, according to the California Department of Public Health data.

That exceeded the state’s limit of 8% and showed more COVID-19 circulating in the community.

As of Monday, the rate had dropped to 7.4% for the latest seven-day period of June 22-29, said county spokesperson Ashley Bautista. That’s the most recent seven-day rate available because of a lag in test results.

It was up from 6.4% a week earlier and 4.3% a week before that.

Ventura County landed on a state watch list on June 25 because of an increasing number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations. The list includes nearly two dozen counties struggling with issues such as hospitalization or elevated transmission.

By Sunday, Ventura County also had exceeded the threshold for the elevated disease transmission, according to the state website.

That happens when its 14-day case rate, which measures the number of cases divided by population, exceeds 100 and the seven-day average positivity rate exceeds 8%.

For each, the higher the number, the more a county is impacted by COVID-19.

State data showed Ventura County had a 164.5 case rate and an 8.2% positivity rate by Sunday. By midday Monday, the state’s website had been updated again and the county’s 14-day case rate had increased again to 179.9.

Its positivity rate, however, had dropped below the 8% mark.

The county also appeared to have dropped below the threshold for rising hospitalizations Monday but was still on the state’s watch list. 

A county stays on that list until it is below the threshold for three days, according to state public health officials.

On Monday, the county reported 88 people hospitalized with the coronavirus. Of those, 30 were in intensive care units. That’s up from 80 hospitalized and 28 in ICU on Thursday, the last day numbers was reported locally before the long weekend.

County Public Health Director Rigo Vargas was unaware that the county’s positivity rate had exceeded the 8% mark over the weekend, saying the state doesn’t alert local officials when that happens. But fluctuations are expected and the state could go on and off the watch list when that happens, he said.

County officials said a large outbreak in a farmworker housing facility in Oxnard may have contributed to the increase. They reported 188 of the 216 people staying at the facility had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Vargas has said local officials would discuss further actions to slow the spread of the sometimes-fatal virus as figures inch higher toward state thresholds. 

“If we continue to have more than one of the four or five indicators go up, then that would be a greater issue,” he said last week as the positivity rate climbed closer to that 8% mark.

Cheri Carlson covers the environment for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at [email protected] or 805-437-0260.

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