Coronavirus update: Deaths surge as Valley nears 10,000 active cases; COVID and the census

The number of deaths related to the coronavirus continues a week-long surge in the central San Joaquin Valley.

On Wednesday, 15 deaths were reported in Fresno, Kings, Madera, Merced and Tulare counties. Mariposa was alone in the six-county region in reporting zero deaths for the day.

Nine deaths were reported in Tulare County and three in Fresno County. The remaining counties reported one death each.

Since late March, nearly 300 Valley people have died of illness related to the coronavirus, according to statistics from health officials in the six counties. The number of deaths accelerated in June and into July. Health officials in the region reported 112 deaths during the month.

They have reported 45 deaths since July 1.

Cases across the region

The Valley topped 18,000 positive cases of coronavirus on Thursday. Of those, nearly 10,000 are considered active, according to updates from the six counties.

Fresno County continues to lead the region in the number of cases. It surpassed the 7,000 mark on Wednesday. Of those, 5,668 remain as active cases. Tulare County added 211 new cases in its Thursday update. It has now seen 5,509 cases, though only less than 2,000 are active.

Madera County is still under 1,000 total cases, though it added nearly 300 new cases this week.

Mariposa remains at 31 cases.

COVID-19 and the 2020 Census

Latinos in rural areas of the Valley are at risk of losing out on federal funding at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has blown holes through local, state and federal budgets.

The reason: Low response rates for the 2020 Census.

Fresno County’s overall response rate reflects national and state levels at 60%. However, in some rural areas where migrant farmworkers live, less than half of all residents have self-reported for the Census, according to recent census data.

In Huron, where 96% of residents are Latino, the self-response rate for the Census hovers around 30%. In the small town of San Joaquin, where nearly 92% of its residents are Latino, the response rate slumps to 27.4%.

In Fresno, the response rate this week was 61.7%, but in Black and brown neighborhoods in the west, southwest and southeast, that number drops, averaging between 40% and 50%.

The national census count performed every 10 years determines how much from $1.5 trillion in federal dollars will be allocated to local governments and how many congressional representatives each state will receive.

Can Fresno schools safely open in the fall?

President Donald Trump is pushing for schools to fully reopen in the fall, threatening via Twitter to cut federal funding to schools that don’t open and calling reopening guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control “tough,” “expensive,” and “impractical.”

Meanwhile, coronavirus hospitalizations climbed to their highest levels in the central San Joaquin Valley, leaving parents worried about sending their children back to school in six weeks.

Many California schools have been pushing forward with plans to offer parents options about how their kids will learn in the fall, but there have been no local announcements of schools opening for all children five days a week.

SoCalGas donates $100k to feed South Valley seniors

Southern California Gas Co. kicked off its “Fueling Our Communities,” at a Visalia nursing facility on Tuesday.

The company, working with the Sequoia Regional Economic Development Foundation, will provide meals to more than 6,500 seniors across Tulare County this summer. The meals will be purchased from local restaurants.

The program is funded by a $500,000 donation from SoCalGas and it will provide close to 140,000 meals to seniors, students, families and migrant farm workers across all of Tulare, Kern, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside and Imperial counties.

Marjaree Mason Center extends award application period

The Marjaree Mason Center is going virtual with its annual Professional Women and Leading Business Awards this year.

The awards, which honor the work of 10 women and businesses in the community while raising awareness about domestic violence, are typically celebrated with an in-person event. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, that event will now happen virtually on Oct. 20.

Because of the change, the nomination deadline has been extended. Nominations will be accepted until 6 p.m. July 22.

Information can be found online at mmcenter.org/top-ten.

This story was originally published July 9, 2020 at 8:38 AM.