Fresno, Valley reaches 100,000 coronavirus cases as hospital ICUs brace for more patients
The total number of people who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Fresno County and neighboring counties in the central San Joaquin Valley since March surpassed 100,000 on Wednesday, marking yet another milestone in a surge that has seen cases grow by almost one-third in just the past month.
The escalation of COVID-19 infections reflects a corresponding and unrelenting increase in the number of people hospitalized for treatment of the virus in the Valley. The lag time between the time that a person may be infected and when they find themselves sick enough to go to a hospital has doctors bracing for what they expect will be even more cases from Thanksgiving gatherings after a two-week incubation.
In Fresno County, 454 people with confirmed COVID-19 cases were in hospitals Tuesday, according to the state Department of Public Health. They include 74 seriously ill patients in intensive-care units. Another 38 suspected cases – patients for whom tests had not yet confirmed the virus – were also hospitalized, including three in ICU beds.
Across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, and Tulare counties, hospitalizations reached almost 800 patients between confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases, including 116 in intensive-care units.
ICU beds are a crucial concern for hospitals and local health officials because their capacity is being stretched to – and in some cases, beyond – their limits, said Dan Lynch, emergency medical services administrator for the Fresno County Department of Public Health. Some hospitals have exceeded their ICU capacity and have resorted to holding patients in emergency rooms until an intensive-care bed becomes available, Lynch said this week.
Hospitals in Fresno County have a total of 149 licensed intensive-care unit beds, just under half the 312 ICU beds licensed in the six-county area.
Between the number of beds occupied by COVID-19 cases as well as patients being treated for other serious conditions, including heart attacks, strokes, trauma, and other circumstances, the Valley’s ICUs had only 32 beds available for new patients on Tuesday, according to the latest information available from the state. Fresno County was down to seven available ICU beds Tuesday.
Around the Valley
Wednesday’s coronavirus case updates from central San Joaquin Valley counties include:
Fresno County: 476 new cases Wednesday, 41,574 to date since the first local cases were confirmed on March 6; no additional deaths, 514 to date. The county had an average of 367 new cases every day over the past week.
Kings County: 92 new cases, 12,716 to date; two additional deaths, 97 to date. The total includes almost 6,100 cases among inmates at state prisons in Avenal and Corcoran.
Madera County: 136 new cases, 7,251 to date; no additional deaths, 107 to date.
Mariposa County: Two new cases, 167 to date; no additional deaths, four to date.
Merced County: 207 new cases, 14,058 to date; three additional deaths, 201 to date.
Tulare County: 577 new cases, 24,239 to date; four additional deaths, 323 to date.
Collectively, 100,005 people have been confirmed by testing to have been infected with COVID-19 since March across the Valley. Of those, 1,246 have died from the respiratory disease caused by the virus.
