Another coronavirus death reported, as cases climb to 183 in Fresno and nearby counties
The central San Joaquin Valley death toll from coronavirus climbed to three with Tulare County reporting a fatality Wednesday, while the number of patients affected by the virus in the region shot up by more than 30 since Tuesday.
Adding to the Valley’s concern, a short-term rehabilitation and skilled nursing home in Visalia reported Wednesday that two healthcare professionals and six patients there tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. Those people are among the total of 59 patients now identified in Tulare County.
The latest death is the second Tulare County resident to succumb to complications related to COVID-19 in the global pandemic, said Tammie Weyker-Adkins, a spokeswoman for the Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency. The county’s first death from the virus was Saturday.
Details about the patient were not released except that the person died Tuesday night and that the person’s exposure to the contagion was related to travel, rather than person-to-person contact or community transmission of uncertain origin.
Tulare County reported 14 new cases between Tuesday and Wednesday, pushing its total number of cases to 59 as of midday Wednesday. The increase is the county’s largest one-day rise in the number of people confirmed to be infected with the virus.
In Fresno County, no patient deaths have occurred. But Dr. Rais Vohra, the county’s interim health officer, reported Wednesday afternoon that the number of people with the virus climbed from 68 on Tuesday to 82 on Wednesday. That’s nearly double the total from less than a week ago.
The Fresno-Clovis metro area is home to 66 of the county’s patients, while the rest are in more rural areas outside Fresno.
Twenty of Fresno County’s cases are attributed to people who traveled outside the area to places where the virus was already spreading, Vohra said. Eleven are blamed on close contact with another infected person, while 14 are attributed to community transmission, where health officials are unable to track down specifically how or where the patient was exposed to the virus.
Another 37 Fresno County cases are under investigation.
Madera County and Merced counties each reported two more cases on Wednesday. Madera County now has 25 cases, while Merced’s total climbed to 12. Kings County has a total of five cases after reporting one new patient on Wednesday.
In Visalia, the Redwood Springs Healthcare Center announced Wednesday that it has eight coronavirus patients. In a news release, the center said all eight people who are infected are isolated from the other residents and staff, and the center is working with Tulare County health officials to test and monitor everyone else in the facility.
The center said the two healthcare professionals experienced the onset of symptoms while caring for two patients in one room.
As of Wednesday evening, the total number of coronavirus cases across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Merced and Tulare counties stood at 183, including the three patients who have died. The Valley’s first death was a patient in Madera County last week. The combined increase of 33 patients represents a new benchmark for the number of new cases reported in a single day in the region.
The first cases of coronavirus disease in the area were reported on March 6, less than a month ago.
To the south, in Kern County, health officials reported a total of 107 cases, including one death, among their residents as of Wednesday.
Easter brings concern
Tulare County health officials worry that the approaching Easter holiday on Aprll 12 could tempt families who are used to gathering together for the religious day to disregard social or physical distancing orders that are intended to reduce chances for person-to-person transmission of the virus.
“We are so concerned that people will be doing their typical Easter egg hunts and all that,” Weyker-Adkins told The Bee on Wednesday. In a video update on the Tulare County department’s Facebook page, Weyker-Adkins reinforced the importance of the preventive measures.
“Get together on the phone virtually, on Messenger or Zoom,” she said. “”Keep your distance.”
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno told its parishioners last weekend that a restriction on public Masses was being extended indefinitely because of the ongoing spread of coronavirus in the region. The decision will affect Holy Week and Easter Sunday observances at churches throughout the diocese that reaches from Merced and Mariposa counties to Kern County.
On Wednesday, Fresno Mayor Lee Brand announced that the city’s parks — large ones and small ones — would be closed for the Easter weekend because of the fast-spreading coronavirus. A day earlier, the city ordered that playground equipment at city parks would be closed during the pandemic because it is too difficult to properly sanitize.
The increase in Tulare County’s cases came a day after the congressman representing the area, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, said in a Fox News interview that California’s stay-at-home measures, including closures of schools and businesses, was “way overkill.”
“If we don’t start getting people back to work in this country over the next week to two weeks — I don’t believe we can wait until the end of April,” he said in a Tuesday appearance on Fox News’ Ingraham Angle. “”I just don’t know of any economy that has ever survived where you unplug the entire economy and expect things to just then go back and be normal.”
The state, national situation
The number of coronavirus cases in California topped 9,400 by Wednesday afternoon, according to a global COVID-19 pandemic tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University of Medicine in Maryland. Those cases include 187 deaths reported across the state’s 58 counties.
In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Gavin Newsom reported that more than 1,850 coronavirus disease patients were hospitalized across the state, including 774 patients being treated in hospital intensive-care units.
Nationally, the number of coronavirus cases in the United States climbed above 213,000 by Wednesday evening, while the death toll grew to more than 4,700. The largest number of cases, nearly 84,000, are in the state of New York, where almost 2,000 people have died from the respiratory disease.
McClatchy Washington D.C. reporter Kate Irby and Fresno Bee reporters Carmen George and Thaddeus Miller contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 6:07 PM.
