New COVID-19 infections in Tulare County push Valley past 2,400 cases, with 61 deaths
Tulare County health officials reported 66 new cases of people who tested positive for COVID-19, including two more deaths associated with complications from the disease.
The new cases bring the total confirmed coronavirus cases to 1,079, including 46 deaths, in Tulare County since the county’s first cases were reported in mid-March, said Jacob Jimenez, a TulareWorks family advocate for the county’s Health and Human Services Agency.
Across the central San Joaquin Valley, 2,484 people have at some point tested positive for the virus. Nearly 45% of those cases have been in Tulare County, where several senior citizen nursing facilities have been hit hard among patients and staff.
Tulare County’s 46 deaths represent more than three-quarters of the fatalities reported in Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties.
More than 670 people are considered to have recovered in the region, including 166 in Tulare County and 313 in Fresno County.
Across the six-county area, case counts as of Saturday afternoon were:
- Fresno County: 885 cumulative cases, nine deaths, 313 recovered.
- Kings County: 275 cases, one death, 50 recovered.
- Madera County: 67 cases, two deaths, 40 recovered.
- Mariposa County: 15 cases, no deaths, 12 recovered.
- Merced County: 163 cases, three deaths, 91 recovered.
- Tulare County: 1,079 cases, 46 deaths, 166 recovered.
Tulare, Fresno, Kings and Madera counties had updated their COVID-19 case counts as of 5 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Mariposa and Merced counties had not posted new totals.
Statewide, the California Department of Health Services reported 64,561 cases of coronavirus disease in the state as of Friday afternoon, inclduing 2,678 deaths. Nationally, a COVID-19 tracking website established by the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, reported more than 1.3 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S., including more than 78,000 deaths.
The case totals in the U.S. represent almost one-third of the more than 4 million COVID-19 infections worldwide. The global death toll from the respiratory disease caused by the virus was almost 278,000 as of Saturday afternoon, according to the Johns Hopkins tracking tool.
This story was originally published May 9, 2020 at 2:53 PM.
