Coronavirus updates: Fresno County cases hit 14,000; Latinos hurt by virus at greater rate
Some of Fresno’s elected officials on Thursday urged schools to figure out a way to put children back in the classroom amid coronavirus on the same day Fresno County reported surpassing 14,000 positive cases.
The county with 120 deaths and 14,312 positive cases is also putting stress on the health care system.
Severely ill patients with COVID-19 continue to occupy about 47% of the licensed intensive-care unit beds in hospitals across the county. Hospitalized COVID-19 patients across all levels take up about one out of four beds licensed for acute medical and intensive-care needs.
Across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Merced, Kings and Tulare counties, 616 people were in hospitals for coronavirus disease on Wednesday, including 563 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Those confirmed cases include 115 intensive-care patients.
Numbers in the state continue to rise while more and more people are asking school leaders to come with a plan for reopening campuses.
Tulare County reports five new deaths
With five new deaths and 213 new cases, Tulare County now totals 178 deaths and 9,454 cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
Of the positive patients, 6,511 have recovered.
The county maintains the most deaths of any county in the central San Joaquin Valley.
Can children get back into classrooms?
Fresno City Councilmembers Mike Karbassi and Garry Bredefeld on Thursday pointed to reports from the Centers for Disease Control that highlighted the importance of child development in the classroom and data that young children tend to have a lower risk of getting the coronavirus.
The narrative over how susceptible children are to COVID-19 got pushback from doctors at Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera.
Valley Children’s CEO Todd Suntrapak noted in a statement that Fresno County, along with six other Valley counties, is on the state watch list. That area is made up of about 170,000 schoolchildren and 25,000 teachers and staff.
Valley Children’s has tested 8,041 children through Monday, with a positive rate of 9.6%, according to the statement. The positive cases include patients from 3-weeks-old to 17, suggesting children can and will get sick or die.
Why is coronavirus hurting Latino communities at greater levels?
Latinos continue to contract the coronavirus at disproportionate rates, leading some experts to suspect systemic biases across housing, healthcare and education are to blame.
Public health experts worry racial inequities are making the Latino community more susceptible to getting sick and dying.
During a virtual news conference this week hosted by The American Heart Association’s Voices for Healthy Kids, top public health leaders discussed the barriers Latinos face that make them more vulnerable to infection. Those barriers include higher poverty rates, a lack of access to proper healthcare, working essential jobs and living in multi-generational households.
Another lawsuit over COVID-19
Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux is being sued by a group of jail inmates for allegedly failing to provide basic safeguards, including face masks, to protect against COVID-19.
The class-action complaint, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Fresno by the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, seeks to force the sheriff to take immediate action to help prevent the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus in the jail.
Among the actions the attorneys are demanding: testing of all inmates and staff; releasing low-flight-risk inmates who are medically vulnerable; requiring staff to wear personal protection equipment and quarantining people exposed to COVID-19.
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 8:20 AM.
