Coronavirus update: More than 1,000 new cases reported in single week in Fresno County
Nearly 300 new coronavirus cases were reported in Fresno County on Wednesday, pushing the county past 33,000 total cases since the outbreak began in March, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Fresno County recorded a total of 269 cases in a single day, up by more than 100 new cases from the day before, bringing the total to 33,024 people who have been infected. Wednesday’s total figure represents a 0.8% increase from the previous day and represents the largest single-day increase in Fresno County since early September when it added 357 cases.
In the past week, Fresno County reported 1,168 new cases, which averages to a seven-day case rate of about 167 per 100,000 residents.
No new deaths were reported Wednesday, keeping the total at 456. County officials will provide an update on the number of deaths on Friday.
Of the 145 hospitalized people, 13 are in the ICU as of Wednesday, while 21,289 people have recovered.
Fresno County has recorded more than 100 cases every day this week, following an uptick in cases over the weekend when 441 new confirmed cases were recorded over Saturday and Sunday.
On Tuesday, Fresno County’s top health officials said they expect the county to return to more business restrictions next week as cases continue to rise. The county currently sits in the red Tier 2 with a case rate of 7.9 per 100,000 residents and a two-week positivity rate of 5.7%.
There have been a total of 76,353 COVID-19 cases across the central San Joaquin Valley since the virus first hit and 1,082 deaths.
State, national updates
For weeks, California has seen an upward trend in new cases, forcing the state to roll back reopening plans in more than 11 counties, while an additional 20 could soon face the same restrictions. It could soon become the second state to surpass 1 million cases.
As the number of cases has climbed, California has recorded nearly 45,000 new cases in just seven days, a 4.8% increase from the week prior. Over two weeks, the state tallied more than 75,000 new cases. The positivity rate, which hit an all-time low of 2.5% in mid-October, is now at 3.8% over the past two weeks.
On Wednesday, state officials reported a total of 984,682 confirmed cases and stood at 18,070 deaths. A total of 7,464 new cases were recorded Wednesday, averaging a weekly case rate of about 6,382 per day. California has hovered between 3,100 to 3,400 new daily cases for most of October, but those numbers have surpassed an average of more than 5,400 per day in the past two weeks.
More than 3,200 were hospitalized, and about 890 were in ICU beds as of Wednesday. On Wednesday, the number of total hospitalizations saw the biggest one-day growth since July, increasing by 141. Hospitalizations have grown by 38%, while ICU occupancy has increased by 34%, according to state data.
As of Wednesday, the U.S. added 145,835 new COVID-19 infections and 1,431 new deaths, according to an analysis by The New York Times. On Wednesday, 10.4 million cases and 241,689 total deaths were reported nationwide since the pandemic began, the most that any other country has reported.
The pandemic has continued to break new records in the U.S., killing about an average of 1,000 people a day, The New York Times reports. On Wednesday, hospitalizations topped 65,368 hospitalizations nationwide for the first time since the pandemic’s onset, a 37% increase over the past two weeks. The number of hospitalizations has more than doubled in a little over a month, surpassing the high from a day earlier by more than 3,400.
Just a few days after pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced promising results from its coronavirus clinical trial, biotech company Moderna on Wednesday said it expects to have results on its vaccine efficacy before November is over, The Washington Post reports.
The announcement comes on the heels of Pfizer’s Monday announcement that early data showed its vaccine is 90% more effective. Moderna’s clinical trial includes more than 30,000 participants, where at least 42% of all participants are considered to be in a “medically high risk” group. The company is preparing to send results to the Data and Safety Monitoring Board, an independent expert panel that will review the clinical trial’s early data.
Once the vaccine is deemed safe for mass distribution, Moderna said it expects to produce about 20 million doses in 2020 and from 500 million up to one billion doses worldwide in 2021.