Coronavirus update: Fresno County nears 34,000 cases ahead of critical update
The California Department of Public Health on Sunday reported Fresno County had added 276 more cases of COVID-19, raising the county’s total to 33,969 infections since the virus first spread this past spring.
County officials on Friday reported a total of 460 deaths, up by four from the day before. The county will provide an update on the number of deaths Tuesday.
There are now 146 hospitalized patients across the county, where 33 of them are in the ICU.
With flu season and winter quickly approaching, county officials for weeks have been warning residents not to let their guard down during the holidays. Foreseeing a massive resurgence of the virus across the county, they’re now urging the community to consider canceling their Thanksgiving plans. In the past week alone, the county saw an average of 210 new cases per day, compared to 172 from the previous week.
State officials on Tuesday are planning on providing the county with an update on its reopening status, according to California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy. Restaurants and businesses are bracing for tightening restrictions as the threat of falling back into the most restrictive purple Tier 1 looms.
For the first time since August, Fresno County last week exceeded 260 new coronavirus infections for two consecutive days, according to state data, while the seven day average of cases totaled 210. That brings the county’s weekly average of new cases to 1,472.
Since late September, Fresno County has been in red Tier 2, which means there is a “substantial” risk for COVID-19 to spread in the community. The red tier allows restaurants indoor dining services at up to 25% capacity or 100 people. County officials predict the recent uptick in cases will lead the county to move back to the more restrictive purple Tier 1 this week., which means most indoor business operations would have to shut down again.
State, national updates
California is now the second state in the U.S., behind Texas, to top 1 million coronavirus infections, with an additional 10,968 reported since Sunday. As the virus continues to spread, state officials say the number of cases is likely more than reported. On Sunday, California reported a total of 1,019,345 confirmed cases and 18,253 deaths. The state’s weekly case rate is now averaging to about 7,815 per day, while fatalities total to about 41 daily deaths.
Statewide, cases have steadily climbed over the past month. COVID-19 infections have now increased by 35%, while ICU patients have spiked 37% in the past two weeks, according to state data. The state is now reporting a positivity rate of 3.4% and a daily new case rate of 8.4 per 100,000 residents.
The governors of California, Oregon, and Washington on Friday strongly urged against non-essential out-of-state travel and issued a joint travel advisory, which asks those who do travel to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.
Dr. Ashish Jha, a health policy researcher and Dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, said in a news conference Friday the U.S. is experiencing “the worst moment” of the pandemic as case numbers across the country continue to peak to daily new highs. The U.S. on Sunday added 135,187 new COVID-19 infections and 623 new deaths, according to an analysis by The New York Times. In the past week, an average of 150,265 cases per day have been recorded, an increase of 81% from two weeks prior.
Though national numbers reflect the U.S. is seeing an average of about 100,000 to 150,000 new cases per day, Jha said the number of daily new infections is likely a lot higher, upwards of 500,000. He said a lack of adequate testing is causing health officials to miss “two to three quarters of all infections.”
The total number of cases nationwide has now exceeded 11.1 million, while the number of deaths totals 246,083. Jha expects a grim forecast over the next two or so months before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. He said he predicts an uptick of at least an additional 100,000 deaths during that time.
“My estimations are that we’re going to have an additional 100,000 Americans die of this disease between now and the day that Joe Biden is inaugurated president,” he said.
On Monday, The New York Times reported that the biotech company Moderna announced its coronavirus vaccine was 94.5% effective, based on the early results from its continuing study.
Moderna is now the second pharmaceutical company after Pfizer in the past couple of weeks to announce promising results from its coronavirus clinical trial. Pfizer, in partnership with the company BioNTech, reported more than 90% effectiveness one week ago. Though the results are a step in the right direction, health officials do not expect a vaccine will be widely available until sometime in spring.
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 8:11 AM.