COVID-19 cases in Fresno County lurch past a milestone. Could it hurt businesses reopening?
Fresno County has experienced its largest one-day increase in confirmed coronavirus infections in more than a month, the California Department of Public Health reported on Monday.
Based on testing results reported to the state by laboratories, 140 new cases of COVID-19 were revealed in the county as of Sunday night. That’s more than any single-day report from the state for Fresno County since Sept. 13, when 159 cases were reported. It also brings to more than 300 the number of new cases that surfaced over the weekend in Fresno County.
The new cases reported Monday also pushed Fresno County to a cumulative total of more than 30,000 people who have been infected with the virus – whether or not they experienced any symptoms – since the first confirmed cases were identified in early March.
The number of new cases can vary widely from one day to another as reported by the state health department. Over the past seven days, an average of 90 new cases were reported each day in Fresno County. The individual days range from a low of 54 cases last Wednesday to the high of 140 reported Monday by the state.
No new deaths were reported Monday in Fresno County; the county’s Department of Public Health only updates its counts of deaths on Tuesdays and Fridays.
The number of new cases each day is an important measurement in California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, a color-coded system of four tiers to which the state’s counties are assigned on a weekly basis. The tiers govern the extent to which a county’s businesses, schools and churches can reopen from limitations imposed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, based on the risk for transmitting the virus in communities.
Fresno County currently resides in the blueprint’s Tier 2, color-coded red to represent “substantial” risk of transmission. It was promoted from purple Tier 1, the most restrictive tier denoting “widespread” risk, on Sept. 29. At that point, restaurants in the county were allowed to resume offering indoor dining at up to 25% capacity, churches could return to holding indoor worship services at the lesser of 25% capacity or 100 people, and health and fitness clubs could reopen indoors at up to 10% capacity.
In the most recent update last week of counties’ tier assignments by the state, Fresno County had an average adjusted rate of 6.5 new cases per day per 100,000 residents for the seven-day period from Sept. 28 through Oct. 5. That falls below the maximum of seven new daily cases needed to remain in the red tier.
If cases eventually creep back above that that rate for two consecutive periods, Fresno County could be reassigned back into Tier 1, forcing reinstatement of stricter limitations on business operations including outdoor-only or take-out service for restaurants, outdoor church services, and other restrictions.
Another key measurement in the state’s blueprint is the percentage of people being tested for whom results come back positive for a COVID-19 infection during the same seven-day period. For Fresno County, that was 5.1%, compared to the maximum of 8% to continue to be in the red tier.
The state’s next update on tier assignments for counties will come on Tuesday and cover case rates and testing for the seven-day period ending Oct. 12. In the central San Joaquin Valley, Merced and Kings counties are also in the red tier of the state’s blueprint, while Mariposa County is in yellow Tier 4, the least restrictive tier.
Madera and Tulare counties remain in purple Tier 1.
Around the Valley
Monday case updates in central San Joaquin Valley counties included:
Fresno County: 140 new cases reported Monday, 30,051 to date; no additional deaths, 429 to date.
Kings County: 14 new cases Monday, 8,153 to date; no additional deaths, 83 to date. Kings County’s total includes 3,634 cases among inmates at state prisons in Avenal and Corcoran.
Madera County: 50 new cases on Monday in the county’s first update since Friday, 4,886 to date; no additional deaths, 73 to date.
Mariposa County: One new case since Friday, 78 to date; no additional deaths, two to date.
Merced County: 61 new cases since Friday, 9,375 to date; no additional deaths, 152 to date.
Tulare County: 86 new cases since Friday, 17,206 to date; one additional death, 276 to date.
This story was originally published October 19, 2020 at 12:58 PM.
