COVID-19 updates: Fresno County doctors to provide tests, business reopenings at risk

The California Department of Public Health on Tuesday reported 71 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 29,136 confirmed infections in Fresno County. The county announced 7 new deaths, bringing the total to 406 since the pandemic began.

As of Monday in Fresno County, the state reported a total of 107 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, including 19 in an ICU.

While cases and testing have improved over the last month, an increase in the average number of new cases threatens to send the county from the red to purple tier as early as next week, Dr. Rais Vohra, the county’s interim health director, announced on a Tuesday afternoon call.

That would entail clamping down once again on indoor dining, church services and fitness gyms, and might even threaten school openings.

“We feel like we’ve made tremendous progress in the last month or so,” he said. “We don’t want to lose any ground.”

Vohra urged the community to wear a mask, follow social distancing protocols and get tested if they have any symptoms or have been exposed to the coronavirus. Performing enough tests can help the county meet its testing and cases threshold, he explained, and the county often performs less tests each day than they have the capacity to do.

“The system is robust enough to accommodate more testing than we’re having done right now,” Vohra said.

Doctors to begin testing, new equity measure will go into effect

Primary care physicians will now begin offering COVID-19 testing, Vohra also announced on the call. The county planned to release the order Tuesday afternoon, he said.

“Our medical community is supportive of taking this step,” Vohra said. “We’re trying to give them all the resources and information they need to succeed with doing this.”

If a person has any symptoms or has been exposed to someone with COVID-19, their primary care doctor will be able to perform a test for them. If the doctor can’t test the patient immediately, the doctor will refer the patient to another place that can perform the test within 24 hours.

Vohra also discussed Tuesday the state’s latest requirement to move ahead in reopening, “designed to ensure disadvantaged groups in every county are getting the attention they need.”

The metric looks at COVID-19 rates among the people living in the most disadvantaged parts of Fresno, and requires that their positivity rates, as well as the county’s overall average, meet the state’s threshold to move further in reopening.

Those areas are concentrated in the south and west parts of the city of Fresno, as well as the west side of the county, according to a map shared by the health department. A number of factors, including economic status, poverty rates, pollution levels and education, were used to determine the most vulnerable communities.

Central San Joaquin Valley cases

Madera County: 12 new cases as of Tuesday, 4,718 to date, no additional deaths, 70 to date; 4,199 people recovered.

Mariposa County: No new cases reported Tuesday, 76 to date; no additional deaths, two to date; no hospitalizations; 74 people recovered.

Merced County: 9 new cases as of Tuesday, 9,090 to date; one additional death, 149 to date; 38 hospitalizations. The county does not report recoveries.

Tulare County: 117 new cases as of Tuesday, 16,607 to date; no additional deaths, 265 to date; 34 hospitalizations; 15,736 people recovered.

Kings County: 8 new cases as of Tuesday, 7,933 total cases; one additional death, 82 deaths to date; 6,314 people recovered.