Coronavirus update for Oct. 12: Fresno County enters critical week for reopening plans
At the start of a new week, the coronavirus outlook in Fresno County appears to improve slightly based on the number of cases and deaths reported.
Last Friday, no deaths were reported in the county. It was the first time since July that an update showed no new deaths. Data shows the 14-day period death rate has gone from six per day to 3.4 per day.
The Fresno County COVID-19 death toll remained at 406. Regionally, it’s nearing 1,000 with 980 currently across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, and Tulare counties.
Statewide data showed Monday that average cases in the seven and 14-day periods in Fresno County decreased to 44 and 68, respectively. By the end of last week, counties reported fewer than 80 cases each.
County awaits COVID status update
Despite the data, Fresno County is in a critical week as it’s one day from hearing whether it will move back a tier after an alarming rise of cases previously. Health officials have been monitoring the situation.
Under the state’s new blueprint guidelines, if a county backslides on key metrics — like cases per 100,000 residents — for two consecutive weeks, it could be reassigned back into the more restrictive tier, purple.
“If it turns out that we’re in a bona fide purple tier, at that time, they will give a three-day notice to implement any sector changes or closures,” Fresno County Interim Health Officer Dr. Rais Vohra told reporters last week.
Here’s an updated list of schools eligible to reopen so far.
State, national cases
A total of 846,579 Californians have been infected with the coronavirus, and 16,564 have died.
Nationally, however, COVID-19 cases are seeing an uptick in different parts of the country, while deaths show a downward trend. There are 7.7 million cases of coronavirus nationally.
The patchy national outlook comes as President Donald Trump has claimed he’s “immune” from the virus after testing positive. Over the weekend, the president’s doctor said he was no longer contagious as he held a rally from the White House balcony.
Twitter flagged the president’s immunity tweet as misleading and potentially harmful information.
