A north-south divide? See where more people test positive for virus in Fresno, Clovis
An analysis of coronavirus cases in Fresno and Clovis indicates that areas in the southern part of Fresno not only have more confirmed infections of COVID-19 over the past few months of the pandemic — they also have a higher rate of people testing positive for the contagion than more northerly parts of the metropolitan area.
Fresno County’s overall positivity rate from testing stands at about 10.8%, according to Friday’s update from the county Department of Public Health. That means for every 100 people who have been tested for the virus in the county, about 11 are confirmed to have been infected.
But some Fresno ZIP code areas have even higher positivity rates — some markedly so. Even discounting downtown Fresno’s 93721, where about 750 COVID-positive inmates at the Fresno County Jail account for more than three-quarters of confirmed infections, eight other ZIP codes in the central and southern parts of the city of Fresno exceed the countywide rates.
Those are ZIP codes 93701, 93702, 92703, 93705, 93706, 93725, 93726 and 93728. One additional ZIP code, 93723 which extends beyond much of northwest Fresno west of Highway 99, also has a higher share of positive test results compared with the county as a whole.
Based on case counts from July 17, the most recent data available from the county for individual ZIP codes, Clovis and northerly areas of Fresno all show lower percentages of infections among those who have been tested.
Five metro area ZIP codes have positivity rates between 7 and 10%: 93710 and 93720 in northeast Fresno, 93722 in northwest Fresno, 93737 on the eastern fringe of Fresno, and the 93611 ZIP code in Clovis.
Two other Clovis ZIP codes have rates below 7%: 93612 in the heart of the city, and 93619 which extends toward the Sierra foothills east and northeast of Clovis. Also falling below 7% are the 93704 ZIP code in central Fresno, 93711 in northwest Fresno, 93650 in the Pinedale neighborhood in northwest Fresno, and 93730 in northeast Fresno.
The positivity rates are far from the only dichotomy between the northern and southern portions of the Fresno metro area. Disparities have existed for decades with residential wealth or affluence, economic investment, new homebuilding and educational attainment generally higher in areas of northeast and northwest Fresno and Clovis.
Poverty, blight, health concerns and other disadvantages have been more prevalent in central, southwest and southeast Fresno.
The positivity rate, which translates to a measure of how quickly the virus is being spread in a community, is one of the key metrics that has landed Fresno County on a state monitoring list of counties where limitations on businesses are being reinstated to reverse a trend of rising cases, increasing hospitalizations and a rising death toll.
In addition to stabilizing hospital admissions and flattening the upslope in cases, state health officials want counties to have positivity rates at or below 8%.
It’s unclear, however, how much these local figures could have already changed over the past week. In just seven days between July 17 — when these ZIP code-based counts and testing estimates were issued – and Friday, Fresno County experienced an increase in cases of 22% — much of that likely in the Fresno-Clovis metro area.
County health officials said their next update of information based on ZIP codes likely won’t be available until Aug. 3.
This story was originally published July 27, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
