COVID-19 cases climb in Fresno region, as potential for more ICU patients worries doctors
The COVID-19 case count continues to grow at a significant pace in the central San Joaquin Valley, as Fresno and Tulare counties each added at least 50 new confirmed positive cases on Wednesday.
Tulare County’s Health and Human Services Agency reported 58 additional cases, and one more death, as of Wednesday morning. That increases the cumulative number of coronavirus infections to 916 since the global pandemic reached the county in March. That figure includes 41 deaths from complications related to the virus, and 150 patients considered recovered by health officials.
Fresno County added 53 more cases to its total since the first instances of the coronavirus were confirmed two months ago. Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim health officer, said the updated case count now stands at 777, including nine deaths and 263 recovered patients.
With six new cases reported in Merced County on Wednesday, and one each in Madera and Mariposa counties, Wednesday marked the second straight day of more than 100 new cases across the region. The central San Joaquin Valley region now has almost 2,150 people who have tested positive for coronavirus infection over the past two months. The death toll in the region from the disease is 56 as of Wednesday afternoon.
The new case totals by Valley county are:
- Fresno County: 777 cases, 9 deaths, 253 recovered.
- Kings County: 233 cases, 1 death, 34 recovered.
- Madera County: 55 cases, 2 deaths, 35 recovered.
- Mariposa County: 15 cases, 0 deaths, 0 recovered.
- Merced County: 152 cases, 3 deaths, 86 recovered.
- Tulare County: 916 cases, 41 deaths, 150 recovered.
Fresno County’s second consecutive day of at least 50 new positive tests for COVID-19 comes as intensive-care units at local hospitals see the number of coronavirus patients creeping higher in recent days.
As of Tuesday, about 27 confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients were sick enough to be hospitalized in intensive-care beds countywide, Vohra said. That’s just under 20% of the total ICU capacity of about 150 beds in hospitals across the county.
The prospect of a growing number of cases, and a growing number of people sick enough to require intensive care – and the extensive medical resources and time of doctors and nurses that go along with it – remain a concern for Vohra.
“This is a very sick population of patients that we have in ICUs,” Vohra said. “Right now, they’re getting all the attention they need.”
But if more people get seriously ill and require ventilators or other advanced life support as treatment for the coronavirus, “the medical system gets more and more stressed … because of all the resources that are required to take care of these patients” as well as many others requiring high-level care for other serious maladies or injuries.
“Our hospitals are always busy with non-COVID patients,” Vohra said. “At any given time, there’s many dozens of patients that require critical care that the ICUs are taking care of.”
“Everything we can do to prevent a hospital admission, especially an ICU admission,” helps protect the capacity of the health care system, Vohra said of social distancing, personal hygiene and other preventive measures.
“We really need to proceed with caution” in lifting restrictions on businesses and restoration of life as it was before social distancing guidelines were imposed, Vohra said. “If we go too quickly, we’re really going to screw up the good numbers that we do have right now. We’re going to experience what we call a second wave and that may actually overwhelm our medical systems.”
“Really, it’s a balance” he added. “The more people who come in with other conditions, the fewer beds we will have for COVID pateints and vice versa. … If we overwhelm our system, all the unfortunate people who have heart attacks and strokes and car crashes won’t be able to access the same level and same standard of care that we expect to provide.”
“Being too confident in this time is really unwarranted,” Vohra said.
This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 6:23 PM.
