Coronavirus update, Nov. 3: California won’t release critical report on Election Day
Due to Tuesday’s presidential election, state health officials won’t release an update on Fresno County’s progress on curbing coronavirus infections per California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, according to a statement released Tuesday morning.
Each Tuesday, state health officials release data on a county’s tier status per the state’s reopening plan. Instead, state and county officials have postponed its coronavirus update until Wednesday.
State and local numbers will still continue to be updated daily.
The California Department of Public Health on Monday reported 55 new COVID-19 cases in Fresno County, bringing the county total to 31,613 infections since the pandemic began. The daily new case rate on Monday was behind the county’s weekly average of 108 new cases per day.
About 109 people remained hospitalized. Four new deaths were reported as of Friday, bringing the total death toll to 443. County health officials on Wednesday are expected to provide an update on the number of deaths.
A total of 20,692 people have recovered countywide, while 360,440 total tests have been conducted. As of Tuesday, Fresno County remained in the second red Tier 2 phase of the state’s reopening plan following weeks of uncertainty from county officials who worry the county may fall back into the most restrictive tier if cases continue to increase.
Fresno County sits at a daily new case rate of 6.6% per 100,000 residents and has a 5% positivity rate. Its health equity positivity rate, which measures how the pandemic is affecting vulnerable communities, hovers around 6.8%, according to data from California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy. The county needs to maintain a daily new case rate under 7% per 100,000 and a positivity rate under 8% to keep its red tier status.
A total of 394 new coronavirus cases across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, and Tulare counties were reported as of Monday, according to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard.
State, national updates
Nearly a million people in California have contracted the virus, totaling 930,628 total cases as of Tuesday, according to state data. Four thousand ninety-four new cases were reported Monday afternoon. A 14-day rolling average shows California has recorded around 4,274 daily new cases, while the statewide positivity rate remained at 3.2%. Five new deaths were reported on Monday, bringing the statewide death toll to 17,672. The past two weeks shows a rolling average of about 50 deaths per day.
Statewide, 2,474 patients were hospitalized, and 698 were in intensive care units, according to the state.
The national death toll from COVID-19 has reached 231,400 as of Tuesday morning. Nearly 9.4 million Americans have contracted the virus, according to a New York Times analysis. The New York Times reported 540 new COVID-19 deaths and 93, 581 new cases nationwide as of Monday-- a nearly 20,000 daily increase from the day before. In the past week, the country has seen an average of 85,563 daily new cases, up 44% from the average two weeks earlier.
Amid a global pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 1.2 million people and a plummeting economy that has resulted in a national unemployment rate of 8%, Americans on Tuesday will head to the ballot box to cast their vote for the next president. Tensions are high in key battleground states where the virus is surging, including Michigan and Wisconsin, where former Vice President Joseph Biden and President Donald Trump hope to score essential victories, The New York Times reports.
On Monday, White House coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx warned her colleagues that the rampant increase in COVID-19 infections is entering a “deadly new phase,” contradicting the president’s remarks the country is “rounding the corner” on the pandemic.
In a memo addressed to White House officials, the country’s top coronavirus adviser said a “more aggressive approach” was needed to stop the fatal spread of the disease, The Washington Post reports.
“We are entering the most concerning and most deadly phase of this pandemic,” she wrote. “This is not about lockdowns — it hasn’t been about lockdowns since March or April. It’s about an aggressive balanced approach that is not being implemented.”