(COVID 19 surge)...It is the suspected result of the holidays.

Updated COVID numbers were released Wednesday morning by the County Public Health Department. According to the new numbers, active cases of COVID 19 has increased by 651 cases. There were 3,541 cases reported Wednesday, as compared to 2,890 reported last week. The number of deaths attributed to the virus have also gone up. From 811 reported last week to 819 reported this week. There are currently 87 COVID positive patients hospitalized in the County, 24 of those are in Intensive Care. The Health Department says 42 ventilators are in use countywide. There are now 1,134 variants of concern cases reported in the county. That number includes all variant cases reported since they were first encountered in the county. The variants of concern in Imperial County are the Delta and Omicron variants. The State Metrics for Imperial County indicate a positivity rate, 7 day average is at 35.4%. The new cases per day per 100,000 population is at 239.10.