Coronavirus updates: Regional cases top 1,000; Yosemite hotel to stay closed into 2021

The total number of coronavirus cases in the central San Joaquin Valley has topped 1,000.

The count comes as health officials in Tulare County confirmed 12 new cases Thursday, bring the total in the county to 453 people who have tested positive for the virus. Twenty-five people have died, including eight this week.

The county accounts for the largest percentage of the region’s 1,002 positive tests, with close to 70 more cases than Fresno County, which reported 384 cases Wednesday, its most recent available update. Tulare County has the vast majority of the region’s 38 deaths.

Fresno designated as testing site

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday the opening of 86 new coronavirus testing sites in “testing deserts” in rural, African American and Latino communities.

It includes a site in Fresno, where the county is seeing double-digit increases in positive cases daily and health officials have bemoaned the need for more testing.

So far, 5,327 Fresno County residents have been tested for coronavirus with 384 positive cases. The Fresno location will conduct more than 100 tests per day for a wide variety of symptomatic and asymptomatic people, including those who work in the public sector or are at a high risk of contracting COVID-19, the coronavirus, or who want to be a part of Fresno’s coronavirus surveillance project.

While some rural tourist communities are eager to reopen in time for summer, Gov. Newsom said the lifting of the state’s stay-at-home-order hinges in part on the state having enough coronavirus testing. He was unable to give a date of when that announcement could come.

Has coronavirus put an end to Bulldog stadium update?

Fresno State’s athletics department is in a financial squeeze because of the coronavirus pandemic. Already, the universty has announced the possibility of eliminating some Bulldog sports programs as the school’s athletics department struggles with declining revenues related to the coronavirus

What does this mean for the ongoing upgrades at Bulldog Stadium?

Fresno State, has made incremental improvements on the stadium and will try to move forward with a project that was started, stalled, stopped and refocused all in the past five years, according to the Bulldogs’ athletics director Terry Tumey.

But the next phase in a renovation plan to make the venue more fan-friendly is on hold for the foreseeable future.

Wawona Hotel in Yosemite closes into 2021

Yosemite National Park officials announced Thursday that the park’s historic Wawona Hotel will stay closed into spring 2021 to complete electrical repairs and upgrades.

Guests with existing reservations will be contacted and offered alternative Yosemite reservation options. The hotel is generally open March through November, and reopens for a short time around Christmas.

Park officials said the hotel’s current electrical system dates back to 1917. The National Park Service is in the process of reviewing the scope of the work and the project’s timeline. The park’s concessionaire, Yosemite Hospitality, a subsidiary of Aramark, will continue renovations to the hotel lobby and guests rooms during the closure, officials said.

Renters and landlords face ‘reckoning’

In the three months between April and June California renters could be $2 billion in the hole on unpaid rent, according to a Sacramento Bee analysis that suggests more than 300,000 California renters, many of them out of work due to California’s coronavirus-induced economy coma, will be unable to pay rent until the economy reopens and lost jobs return.

For Fresno, the CARES Act stimulus package has included $4.3 million in Community Development Block Grant funding, along with $2.1 million in emergency funds. City administration officials have not put forward a spending plan for the CDBG dollars yet, according to communications director Mark Standriff. But City Councilmembers Miguel Arias and Esmeralda Soria are working on a proposal to develop a COVID-19 relief fund that would provide resources for residents’ basic necessities, including rent.

Clovis not ready to ‘write off the school year’

Clovis Unified’s 43,000 students may return to campus in late May, two weeks before the school year is scheduled to end.

School campuses were closed March 13 to slow the spread of COVID-19. On Wednesday night, the school board voted unanimously to extend the closures until at least May 22. The district’s last day of school is scheduled June 5.

Board President Chris Casado said trustees were not ready “to throw in the towel” or “write off the whole school year as some districts have done.”

While most California schools and universities have shuttered campuses, state officials have said those decisions are in the hands of local school leaders. Only the governor has the authority to order all schools to close, and Newsom so far has only recommended schools follow public health guidelines.

Town hall meeting Friday

Fresno County Department of Public Health and UCSF Fresno are partnering to hold a public town hall meeting on Facebook Live at 4 p.m. on Friday. Details will be rolled out later this week.

This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 8:10 AM.