Hospital capacity stretched as Fresno County struggles to improve COVID-19 cases
After a failed attempt at flattening the coronavirus infection curve in the spring and summer, is Fresno County finally seeing slowing infections?
One word describes what doctors are seeing: plateau.
It means there is a steady flow of cases — not increasing or decreasing at a drastic pace. But Fresno County’s top doctor said not so fast.
Infections from the coronavirus in Fresno County are still too high for comfort, and hospital capacity needs to improve before the Fresno area can see significant progress.
The positivity rate from COVID-19 tests in Fresno County is between 11 and 13%. The state wants to see counties with a rate of under 8%.
During Friday’s briefing on the pandemic, Dr. Rais Vohra, the Fresno County Department of Public Health’s interim health officer, said the county added 139 COVID-19 cases since the last update and has crossed 24,000 total cases. The death toll is 239 since March.
Vohra said 218 people were hospitalized as of Friday, a decrease from previous reports, but a number that is still keeping hospitals at near capacity. The number of ICU beds is less than 10% going into the weekend.
Vohra said hospitals are strained by COVID-19, along with common health issues.
Fresno hospitals on shaky ground amid COVID-19, Vohra says
Although hospitals are getting by with loaned resources from the federal government, they are treading on shaky ground, Vohra said, and facing a worrisome deadline with the flu season’s start.
Vohra on Friday, described the situation that medical workers are in as “treading water with ankle weights on.”
“I think that we’re holding steady and maintaining with the limited resources that we have,” Vohra said. “While we are very thankful for these additional resources in some of our hospitals, we are not going to be able to take them for granted. Once they are called away to deal with other disasters, perhaps, we will be left with fewer resources. We still need to be very aggressive about getting these numbers better.
Vohra urged residents to get the flu shot early, especially those working in congregate settings. He said doctors are all being ordered to be vaccinated.
“I don’t think there has been a more important year for getting a flu vaccine than this year,” Vohra said. “It’s going to be so important for us to really put on a very strong front.”
The community spread of coronavirus has been a concern for local medical officials because close gatherings continue to happen, and the Labor Day Holiday could be another challenge.
Vohra said gatherings are hard to predict and regulate and asked residents themselves to be mindful of the widespread infections.
“Those are all high-risk activities. You can’t let down your guard,” he said. He said residents who do not follow social distancing guidelines are “sacrificing a larger, more important, goal” for short-term rewards.
Vohra said the county is still behind in contact tracing, particularly because county workers are running into situations where some residents do not report their infections.
Fresno County is also gearing up to begin assisting residents in the “Healthy Harvest” campaign, which aims to help essential workers, particularly in agriculture, manage the pandemic.
The program, which is being led by the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission and other community-based organizations, will assist farmworkers and other essential workers in isolation at hotel rooms. That way, organizers said, families, are not affected by an infected relative or roommate.
The program, which is also being coordinated with the state, will provide food and cash relief to workers who cannot be at work. The organizations are still pursuing hotel contracts in rural cities, but most hotels so far are listed in Fresno. The county organizations will provide transportation.
The campaign is Valleywide, but each county will operate in its own way.
In recent weeks, agricultural workers have received N95 and other types of face masks to help with the impact of smoke from wildfires and protect them from coronavirus transmission.
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 4:02 PM with the headline "Hospital capacity stretched as Fresno County struggles to improve COVID-19 cases."
