Coronavirus update: Thousands more cases reported in Fresno ahead of death toll update
For the second day in a row, California on Thursday reported a skyrocketing number of new COVID-19 infections in Fresno County, adding more than 1,800 new cases following Wednesday’s record number of nearly 2,600.
For both days combined, that totals to more than 4,500 cases. Before this week, the largest number of new cases reported on a single day was 743 cases reported in August.
On Wednesday, 2,590 new cases were reported, followed by Thursday’s sum of 1,857, bringing the total number of infections to 49,173. Almost 22% of those have surfaced just since the beginning of the month.
There have been a total of 26,742 recoveries countywide.
State officials blame the volume of the latest statewide surge in COVID-19 infections on a new automated feature that helps counties track and report the number of positive test results coming in from testing laboratories.
The county is now reporting an average of about 1,031 cases per day, according to state data.
More people were being treated in hospitals, both in Fresno County and across neighboring Central Valley counties, than at any point during the coronavirus pandemic. There were 527 people hospitalized, of which 91 remained in the ICU this week. Fresno County’s ICU bed availability remains under the state’s 15% threshold.
Across the Valley, more than 115,600 people have tested positive for COVID-19 since March. Of those, 1,331 have died.
California backlog contributes to rise in COVID-19 cases
California reported a surge of 51,209 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, breaking the state’s previous record high of 53,711 cases reported the day before, which included a backlog of 12,630 cases. State officials said an apparent backlog in results caused Wednesday’s numbers to increase by almost 30% but were cases from previous days.
Officials also reported 293 deaths in the state on Wednesday, compared to the previous high of 225 deaths on Saturday.
There were 1,751,091 confirmed cases and 22,176 statewide deaths, up by 288 on Thursday.
The state has averaged about 37,745 new cases in the past week, increasing by nearly 122% from the tally earlier this month. On average, about 220 people have been dying per day over the last week, rising by 170.5%. from two weeks ago.
Statewide, there were 15,431 people hospitalized with a confirmed case late this week. As a whole, California’s ICU availability dropped to 3% as of Thursday, state data shows.
In an announcement Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said California’s next shipment of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine would be about 40% smaller than expected. The state had initially planned to receive 393,000 vaccine doses early next week, but federal officials have since said the state will only get about 233,000 doses, Newsom’s office confirmed, due to a tracking error.
A Defense Department tracking system that tracks coronavirus vaccines’ distribution had outdated numbers in place last week, which failed to update with accurate information.
On Monday, the state vaccinated 327,000 health care workers at risk of COVID-19 exposure after receiving the initial round of vaccine doses from Pfizer.
Newsom confirmed earlier this week California would receive up to 2.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine this year from Pfizer and Moderna, another pharmaceutical company that developed a vaccine.
U.S. coronavirus cases pass 17.2 million
The U.S. reported 238,189 new COVID-19 cases Thursday and at least 3,293 new deaths. More than 17.2 million cases have been reported since the pandemic began, while the number of deaths has increased to 310,935.
Over the past week, the U.S. has averaged 213,165 cases per day, an increase of 18% from the average two weeks earlier. Nationwide hospitalizations stood at 114,237 late this week. In the past five days alone, the U.S. has reported at least one million new cases, according to a New York Times analysis.
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to receive a COVID-19 vaccination early next week, which will be televised, federal officials confirmed. The move follows a public event on Friday where Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen were injected with the new drug.
Public health experts hope the televised screenings will encourage Americans to take the vaccine once it is readily available and trust that it is safe. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said Friday’s event should “remind the rest of the country to ‘step up to the plate,’” The New York Times reports.
As of Friday, President Donald Trump had not publicly stated whether he would take the vaccine.