Coronavirus updates: Tulare County confirms sixth death; Nunes’ challenger gets boost

Gov. Gavin Newsom, in a news conference over the weekend, said California has drastically cut down its COVID-19 testing backlog.

Health officials in the state have managed to shrink the pileup of pending tests by more than two thirds in less than a week, he said.

Of California’s nearly 40 million residents, 126,000 people have been tested for coronavirus, which causes the respiratory illness COVID-19, the Associated Press reported.

And the state’s isolation and social distancing measures also appears to be paying off, as California continues to be outpaced by other states that are adding new cases at higher rates.

Case updates for the central San Joaquin Valley

In the central San Joaquin Valley, the number of positive cases — and related deaths — continues to climb.

A total of six people have died in Tulare County. The county’s Health and Human Service Agency announced the sixth death on Monday. It was the third death over the weekend. Two people died on Friday.

On Saturday, the agency confirmed that the county was seeing community transmission of the coronavirus.

Ten people have now died of coronavirus in Fresno, Tulare, Madera and Merced counties.

Fresno County reported five more people had tested positive in its regular daily update Sunday, bringing the county’s total number of cases to 108. This follows confirmation of the county’s first death on Friday.

In Merced County, the Department of Health confirmed on Sunday its first coronvirus-related death. The patient was a man under the age of 65 with underlying health conditions.

April 12 deadline on city’s zero interest business loans

The city on Monday, announced its plans to administer its piece of the $750,000 emergency loan effort that’s planned in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The city is partnering with the Fresno Economic Opportunity Commission and Access Plus Capital, a small business loan fund, to deliver the loan dollars.

Businesses with five or fewer employees can apply for $5,000 and a business with six to 25 employees can apply for $10,000. The loans are interest free and can be forgiven after a year if the business stays afloat. Businesses must apply with Access Plus Capital by midnight on April 12 to be considered, according to Emelia Reyes, president of EOC.

The money will be split evenly among the city’s seven council districts and may be rewarded by a random drawing,

“Small businesses are the heart of our economy and they’re experiencing unprecedented disruptions,” Mayor Lee Brand said.

Evictions can still happen

Gov. Newsom issued an executive order last month providing protections for tenants impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. And yet, evictions continue. The Fresno County sheriff conducted 20 lockouts in the past two weeks, according to CalMatters.

This has left everyone from local governments to tenant attorneys, landlords and the courts scrambling to figure out what those protections mean and how they can be implemented. Two things seem to remain true: Pay your rent if you can, and communicate with whom you owe in writing about your situation.

Here is an additional primer for those needing help.

CDC now recommends face masks for the public

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending people wear homemade cloth face masks in public.

This reverses earlier advice from the CDC saying that surgical masks, whether store-bought or homemade, don’t protect the wearer against the COVID-19 virus. And they can actually increase infections risks if not correctly worn and disposed of.

But face masks can help prevent infected people from spreading the virus, even if they have no symptoms — prompting the change.

Devin Nunes’ challenger sees campaign’s best fundraising week

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Fresno Democrat Phil Arballo had one of his best fundraising weeks since he launched his bid to unseat Republican Rep. Devin Nunes. Arballo received about $190,000 in contributions to his campaign in the last two weeks of March.

Arballo’s campaign said that’s partly due to recent TV appearances in which Nunes questioned decisions to keep schools closed because of the coronavirus outbreak and seemed to encourage people to go to pubs against the advice of public health officials.

“When he goes on television like that, and makes those statements, it’s not hard to light a fire under our supporters,” Arballo said.

Judges deny emergency release of California inmates

A federal court rejected an emergency plea on procedural grounds to release thousands of California prison inmates to protect them from coronavirus, ruling federal courts do not have authority under a 2009 order limiting the state’s prison population levels.

The three-judge court, which held a hearing on the issue Thursday, issued an order late Saturday declaring that the current crisis does not fit under the original ruling.

“That order was never intended to prepare Defendants to confront this unprecedented pandemic,” the judges wrote. “Nor could it have, given that the entire world was unprepared for the onslaught of the COVID-19 virus,” the judges wrote.

This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 9:26 AM.