Since city of Fresno ended sheltering in place, COVID-19 has hit Fresno County big time

In about one month since the city of Fresno ended its shelter-in-place orders, Fresno County’s coronavirus-related death total as well as confirmed cases of COVID-19 have almost tripled.

In addition, the county has had nearly as many additional people hospitalized due to COVID-19 than it had registered during the first three months of the pandemic when the city of Fresno’s shelter-in-place was enforced.

That’s based on the latest figures provided Saturday after the Fresno County Department of Health reported 100 new positive test results for COVID-19, along with nine more hospitalizations. There were no new deaths.

Since May 26 — when the city of Fresno’s shelter-in-place ordered came to an end — Fresno County has gone from 1,535 confirmed cases to 4,474 positive results.

That’s an increase of 2,939 new cases over 32 days.

Coronavirus-related deaths in the county have climbed from 26 to 72.

That’s a total of 46 deaths — an average of 1.44 per day — since the city’s shelter-in-place orders were lifted.

And during that same 32-day stretch, Fresno County went from 184 to 359 patients who have needed hospitalization at some point.

That’s a jump of 175 hospitalizations in just over a month or about 5.5 additional hospitalizations per day.

The overall positivity rate of tests also has increased, going from 7.6% (1,535 cases among 20,229 tests processed on May 26) to 8.5% (4,474 cases among 52,735 tests processed as of Saturday).

Meanwhile, Fresno County’s recovery rate has slowly declined, going from 33% (507 recoveries of 1,535 confirmed cases) to 25.4% (1,138 recoveries among 4,474 cases).

Kings County update

The Kings County Department of Health reported 10 positive tests Saturday, bringing its total to 1,058 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of those, Kings County has 479 active cases.

The state operated correctional facilities in Kings County did not report any new cases of the coronavirus.

However, one more person had died due in part to COVID-19, coming out of the Avenal state prison. That’s the third coronavirus-related death in the Kings County correctional facilities.

This story was originally published June 27, 2020 at 5:39 PM.