Tulare County confirms a sixth death related to coronavirus, bringing region total to 10

A sixth person in Tulare County has died due to the coronavirus.

The Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency announced the death as part of updated statistics on its website Monday. It was the third death reported over the weekend. Two people – both over 65 years old – died on Friday. Another person died March 31.

Tulare County reported its first death March 28. Tulare’s latest makes a total of 10 coronavirus-related deaths within Tulare, Fresno, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Kings counties.

The number of positive cases has also surged within the region at more than 300. The region’s first case was confirmed in Madera County on March 7. The total number of COVID-19 cases reached 307 as of midday Monday, but several Valley counties were expected to update their status of cases and deaths later Monday afternoon, likely adding to the region’s total.

Across California, the number of cases reached more than 15,000 by Monday afternoon. Most of those were in the state’s more densely populated urban areas, led by nearly 6,000 in Los Angeles County. But while the number of cases in the central San Joaquin Valley pale by comparison, some Valley counties are being hit considerably harder than others with higher rates of infection from the novel coronavirus per 100,000 people.

Tulare County, for instance, is at 28.1 cases per 100,000 people, well behind the state norm of 38.5 but well ahead of Fresno County (10.6).

When will California’s COVID-19 cases peak?

California-wide, the patient-load modeling predicts the virus spread will overwhelm even the expanded capacity by mid-May, Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week.

National numbers released by President Donald Trump’s administration show the state is doing better than others at preventing the spread of infection. An independent and widely cited University of Washington coronavirus monitoring projects California could see new cases approach their peak as early as next week.

The Newsom administration has said it sees the peak hitting in May. Newsom on Friday declined to answer questions about how the state’s modeling differs from others.

Already, California hospitals are treating nearly 2,500 coronavirus patients and an additional 3,100 people suspected of having the virus, according to the state’s Department of Public Health.

To accommodate the escalating number of COVID-19 patients, the Newsom administration is seeking more health care workers. More than 70,000 people have already signed up for the California Health Corps established last week, Newsom said. That includes doctors and nurses who have stopped practicing or want to expand their practice, as well as medical students close to finishing their degrees.

Health workers treating coronavirus patients are vulnerable to the disease, especially as hospitals face shortages of protective equipment like masks and gloves.Nearly 200 health care workers in California have tested positive for coronavirus, according to data released Sunday by the Department of Public Health. That’s out of 13,438 total positive cases.

The department is not releasing the number of health workers who have died from the virus. Last week, Los Angeles County announced the first health worker to die from COVID-19 in the United States.

Overall, 319 people with the coronavirus have died in California, according to the Department of Public Health. Experts say official COVID-19 death tolls are undercounting people because of limited testing, according to reporting by The Washington Post.

The Sacramento Bee contributed to this report.

This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 12:40 PM.