Coronavirus updates, Oct. 28: Fresno County avoids restrictive tier; national cases spiking
Fresno County on Tuesday was able to maintain its designation under California’s Blue Print for a Safer Economy, meaning restaurants, churches and other businesses, such as gyms, will continue to offer indoor limited services.
Officials feared the county could backslide into the purple Tier 1, which is the most restrictive level. Under that tier, restaurants for example, would have been forced to close their indoor dinning and been limited to outdoor, take-out or delivery only.
Other businesses would have also been limited to offering services outdoor.
On Sept. 29, Fresno County graduated from the purple Tier 1 to the red Tier 2, which allowed more businesses to reopen with limitations in place. Counties are evaluated on their tier assignments every Tuesday.
As part of the evaluation, the state on Tuesday reported the county’s rate for new coronavirus cases was 6.7 infections per 100,000 residents daily for the week ending Oct. 17. Last week, the county slipped in its adjusted case rate when it had a 7.3 per 100,000 — above the requirement of 7.0 per 100,000.
If the county had missed its mark for a second consecutive week, it could have faced the possibility of falling back into the most restrictive tier.
Case counts for Fresno County and Valley
On Tuesday, the California Department of Public Health reported Fresno County added 111 new COVID-19 cases, pushing its total to 30, 969 infections since the pandemic began in March. Tuesday marked the sixth consecutive day with more than 100 new infections.
Three more deaths related to COVID-19 were also reported Tuesday in Fresno County. The total toll from the virus and the respiratory illness is now at 439.
Fresno County reports on COVID-19 fatalities on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Across the central San Joaquin Valley, the total number of COVID-19 infections on Tuesday pushed passed 71,700.
Statewide, California on Tuesday reported an increase of 3,188 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total count of infections across the state to 904,198 since the pandemic began. The state has recorded a total of 17,400 fatalities due to the virus and the respiratory illness.
Across the country
As President Trump continues to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus and the increase in cases, the country has seen a 46% spike in hospitalized patients, compared to a month ago, the New York Times reported Wednesday morning.
A total of 26 states across the country are now seeing infections at or near record levels, and no states are seeing declines in the number of cases, the paper reported.
Many field hospitals have opened across the country to handle the increased need.
The nation added a record of more than 500,000 cases in the last week, alone. Those record numbers come on the heels of the Trump administration on Tuesday claiming it had ended the pandemic, according to the New York Times.
The country has recorded an average of 73,000 daily new cases in the last week.
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