COVID-19

The holiday season is upon us. As we prepare to celebrate and visit with friends and family—many of whom we have not seen in a long time, we need to do so cautiously and wisely. To borrow from a flyer I recently came across: “We want to spread joy and love, not Covid.” Unfortunately, a hard-learned lesson from the Covid-19 pandemic we are…

The You & Me COVID-Free program, which provides communities with access to free, rapid COVID-19 test kits to use at home as needed, has…

The surge in COVID cases which started in mid-July has developed a peculiar plateau-like pattern at a high number of cases, as opposed to a significant decrease…

As the number of cases of COVID-19 surge again globally as a result of the delta variant, world leaders are searching for ways to make more informed decisions on how to contain the pandemic. Researchers at UC Merced and Michigan State University (MSU) know what can provide early signs of the virus and help with critical decisions — sewage.…

A surge in COVID cases since mid-July has been a continuing concern to the Merced County Public Health Department, especially because the number of children…

By Marc Medefind As soon as I was eligible, I got my COVID-19 vaccination. After an anxious year of waiting, I felt like a kid on Christmas Day when I got my…

More than 500 deaths in Merced County are now linked to the COVID-19, including this region’s first pandemic-related infant death, according to the Public Health Department reports before the Times press run this week. The death toll rose to 509 as of Wednesday morning. “While each life lost as a result of this virus is tragic, the loss of a…

The Merced County Department of Public Health (Department) has confirmed the first pediatric death related to COVID-19 in Merced County – an infant with…

The highly contagious Delta Variant is spreading rapidly among the unvaccinated through communities with low vaccination rates such as Merced, and can make…

By STEVE M. TIETJEN, Ed.D. Most Merced County students return to the classroom this week after a year-and-a-half of in-person learning, distance learning, or a hybrid of both. While these measures were implemented with the best interest of our staff and students in mind, we know that the isolation from their peers was detrimental to…