Coronavirus updates: Community-acquired cases in Fresno; Gov. Gavin Newsom bans evictions

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the coronavirus stimulus bill Friday and sent it to President Donald Trump for his signature.

The Senate approved the $2 trillion package, which includes money for unemployment benefits and a provision to send $1,200, to many Americans, on Thursday.

This comes as cases of the coronavirs continue to surge.

Kings County confirmed its first positive case of the cornonavirus on Friday.

The county’s department of public health is investigating whether the case was travel-related, person-to-person or community acquired. The patient has been quarantined and close contacts have been identified, according a news release from the department.

A Madera County man is the first person in the central San Joaquin Valley to die from the coronavirus — just days after showing his first signs of COVID-19 .

The man, in his 60s, had tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday and died on Thursday, according to the Madera County Department of Public Health. He had been suffering from underlying health conditions and is believed to have contracted the virus via person-to-person transmission, the health department said.

This news came on the same day that U.S. surpassed China and Italy with the most confirmed coronavirus cases in the world.

In Fresno County, health officials confirmed three new, community acquired cases on Friday and expect cases to quickly multiply in the coming weeks. This come a day after the county reported the largest daily increase in positive tests since the first case was reported March 7. With eight new cases reported Thursday, the total number of positive cases in the county is 30.

So far, Fresno County has not reported any deaths tied to COVID-19 and none of the patients have needed hospitalization.

Evictions banned in CA

California governor Gavin Newsom announed on Friday an order that would ban California landlords from evicting tenants while the state fights coronavirus. The ban will be in place through May 31.

The order require tenants to tell their landlord in writing that they can’t pay their rent because of the pandemic within a week after their rent was due. It explicitly includes people who can’t pay rent because they fall ill or are taking care of someone else who has COVID-19, people who lost their jobs because of California’s stay-at-home order, and people missing work to care for children no longer in school.

Fresno has been operating under a similar order for a week.

Unemployment claims surge

Unemployment claims were expected to surge as businesses begin to feel the impact of stay-at-home orders issued by state and local health officials, calling for non-essential businesses to temporarily close.

In the week ending March 21, close to 187,000 Californians filed initial claims for unemployment insurance, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That’s more than three times more than the prior week.

And many more laid-off workers could be filing in the coming weeks. A recent Economic Policy Institute study suggests that by June, more than 1.6 million Californians could lose their jobs. That’s a prospect that would rival the job losses that materialized over a much longer period during the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009.

A Sacramento Bee analysis of the EPI report indicates that in the central San Joaquin Valley — the five-county region including Fresno, Kings, Madera, Merced and Tulare counties — private-sector job losses could climb to more than 55,000, or 11% to 12% of employment based on pre-coronavirus levels in 2019.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Fresno and the central San Joaquin Valley were looking at a fairly strong economic picture. More than 38,000 people were unemployed in Fresno County in February, when the unemployment rate was 8.5%, according to the report from the Economic Development Department released on Friday.

That was down from the same time last year, when the rate was 8.9%, and the lowest February rate on record since 1990, according to Steven Gutierrez, an analyst with EDD.

DMV field offices close

California’s Department of Motor Vehicles is shutting down all of its field offices for the rest of the month and expanding the number of transactions that customers can complete online.

The department announced to its employees on Thursday the offices would closed to be thoroughly cleaned in order to “protect the health and safety of customers and employees during the coronavirus pandemic.”

The department is canceling in-office appointments and will not when they can be rescheduled, though offices are expected to reopen to employees April 1. By April 2, there are plans to offer more services at the DMV website such as vehicle title transfers and complex vehicle registration renewals.

Will ICE detainees be freed?

A 64-year-old Kern County woman considered a high-risk for severe illness from the coronavirus has been released from the custody of immigration authorities, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. The woman was released Tuesday, the same day the ACLU sued ICE on behalf of more than a dozen undocumented immigrants who have health issues that could be complicated by COVID-19 infection.

ICE officials wouldn’t say whether the release was tied to the ACLU lawsuit.

ICE’s website on Thursday reported just one confirmed case of COVID-19 infection among detainees - in New Jersey.

Forrest Service closes recreational sites

The United States Forrest service closed recreation sites at all 18 national forests in California to help to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. The order, released on Wednesday, was issued to stem the recent increase in visitors to parks across the state, despite Gov. Gavin Newsom statewide stay-at-home order.

The Stanislaus National Forest’s Pine Crest Lake area, which is typically a popular destination in the summer, “was completely packed this weekend,” according to Randy Moore, forester for the Pacific Southwest Region. Some visitors had driven up to three hours from the Bay Area to get away from the city.

The closure order includes campgrounds, day-use sites and picnic areas which attract large groups of people and require significant management and puts forest employees at risk of COVID-19 exposure.

The National Park Service has already announced the closure of Yosemite and Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Employees in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks learned Thursday that they have to be out of park housing by the end of the month as caution against the coronavirus spread.

Meanwhile, the southern entrance to Millerton Lake State Recreation Area remains open, including the boat launch. It is not among the state parks closed to vehicular traffic. The northern entrance is closed.

Schools remain closed

Central Unified School District announced on Thursday that it will extended school closures throughout the first weekend of May.

The district, the third largest in the region with 22 schools and approximately 16,000 students, was initially scheduled to reopen its schools on April 20. Fresno Unified and Clovis Unified, which closed its schools at the same time as Central, are both tentatively scheduled to resume classes April 14, following their originally scheduled spring break session, which runs April 6-13.

Virtual live entertainment

While bars and nightclubs have been closed, officially, and live music venues have canceled or postponed all events for the foreseeable future, many artists continue to find ways to perform and connect with fans.

Several have put together concerts, art showcases, DJ sets — even full on music festivals — all live streamed from Instagram or Facebook. Here’s a list of some of this week’s best from the Fresno area.

This story was originally published March 27, 2020 at 10:05 AM.