Coronavirus update, Nov. 5: As cases increase, can Fresno move closer to more reopenings?
The California Department of Public Health reported 118 new coronavirus infections in Fresno County on Wednesday, bringing the total to 31,856 cases.
A total of 447 people have died in Fresno County. Health officials update the death toll on Tuesdays and Fridays.
As the county continues to report more than 100 new cases a day, its chances of soon graduating into the next tier of the state’s reopening plan remain slim. The county’s weekly average of new cases continues to stand at 109 per day, while its two-week rolling average hovers within the same range at 117 per day.
Fresno kept its red Tier 2 status within California’s four-tier, color-coded Blueprint for a Safer Economy. But its requirements to remain in that stage fall just slightly behind the threshold, showing a new daily case rate of 6.3 per 100,000 residents. The county needs to stay under seven new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents each day to stay within this tier. The positivity rate remains at 5.1%, while the health equity positivity rate, which measures how many people in vulnerable communities are getting sick, remained at 7.4%. Both positivity rates need to stay below 8% to stay in the red tier.
A total of 73,831 people have contracted the virus across the central San Joaquin Valley since the pandemic began, and 1,067 people have died.
A total of 309 new coronavirus cases across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, and Tulare counties were reported as of Wednesday, according to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard.
State, national updates
California continues to inch its way closer to recording nearly 1 million coronavirus infections, reaching 940,010 confirmed cases Wednesday, according to state data. A total of 5,338 new cases were recorded Wednesday. The state reported a total of 17,752 COVID-19 related deaths on Wednesday, up 66 deaths from the previous day. The government reported a daily new case rate of 7.7 per 100,000 residents on Wednesday.
A 14-day rolling average shows California has recorded around 4,445 daily new cases, while the positivity rate slightly increased to 3.3%. A total of 19,181,012 tests statewide have been conducted since the pandemic first hit.
Statewide, 3,410 patients were hospitalized, and 901 were in intensive care units.
With coronavirus cases climbing to new record highs each day, 23 states across the U.S. on Wednesday recorded more cases in the past week than in any other seven day period, according to a New York Times analysis. Colorado, Maine, Nebraska, Indiana, and Minnesota were among the states to set single-day records on Wednesday. North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming continue to report the highest amount of cases nationwide.
With winter quickly approaching, top infectious disease experts worry the number of cases will likely continue to increase. There has been an average of 91,878 cases per day in the past week, a 51% increase from two weeks earlier. About 50,000 people remain hospitalized across the country, a 64% increase since the beginning of October, according to the COVID-19 Tracking Project.
As of Wednesday, nearly 234,223 people across the country have died from contracting COVID-19., while more than 9.5 million people have tested positive since the pandemic began. One hundred seven thousand eight hundred seventy-two new COVID-19 cases and 1,616 new deaths were reported nationwide on Wednesday, according to a New York Times analysis.
Hundreds of millions of Americans continue to wait for the final results of this year’s presidential election. In a survey conducted by The Associated Press in the days leading up to the Nov. 3 election, the results showed a stark partisan divide among the country’s electorate. The survey of more than 110,000 voters showed that Americans likely to support President Donald Trump’s reelection saw the economy as “good” or “excellent,” while voters who supported former Vice President Joseph Biden thought the economy was “poor” or “not so good.”
About 28% of Americans said jobs and the economy were the top issues, while 41% said containing the spread of the coronavirus was their top priority, according to the survey.