Coronavirus updates: Fresno County cases increase, worrying leaders about surge
Following Christmas weekend, Fresno County on Monday added 731 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 63,811 cases since the pandemic began. There were 646 COVID-19 related deaths as of Monday, according to state numbers. The number of deaths will be updated Tuesday.
Public officials are worried family gatherings and travel during last week’s holiday will contribute to a new surge in cases. But with many public agencies closed, total case counts will likely not be reflected right away. As of Monday, there were 666 hospitalizations countywide; of those, 143 remained in the ICU, according to county data.
The county is still below the 15% ICU bed availability requirement needed to reopen the economy, reporting 0% bed availability as of last week. As of Monday, there were eight beds available for a region with more than 1 million residents.
The six-county region that makes up the central San Joaquin Valley, which includes the counties of Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare, reported at least 4,329 new cases and 29 deaths on Monday. Only Fresno and Kings reported during Christmas with the rest holding over tallies from before Christmas Eve. Valleywide, there are 140,765 total coronavirus cases and 1,510 total deaths as of Monday.
Newsom says extension of COVID-19 stay-at-home order likely
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday said he would ”likely” extend a regional stay-at-home order that has kept restaurants and other indoor business operations closed in the San Joaquin Valley. The order was set to expire Monday, but the lack of available ICU beds within the region means it will now be extended. As of Monday, the region effectively had 0% space in hospital ICUs.
The San Joaquin Valley region includes Fresno, Merced, Stanislaus, Calaveras, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, San Benito, San Joaquin, Tulare and Tuolumne counties.
Newsom said a formal announcement on the stay-at-home order’s status will be made Tuesday, after the state releases an update on the latest numbers for infections.
California epicenter of pandemic in U.S.
California on Monday had entered the final week of 2020 as the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. The state of 40 million people has seen more than 2.1 million residents get infected and at least 24, 545 residents die of COVID-19 complications since the crisis first started, according to state data.
As of Monday, there were 2,195,960 total coronavirus cases and 24,529 deaths in California, according to the California Department of Public Health. There were an additional 66,811 new cases and 257 new deaths reported on Monday.
More than 570,000 of California’s cases and 3,250 of the deaths have come in the past two weeks as the state continues to average record highs of about 41,000 cases and 231 deaths per day. California has reported the highest number of new cases per capita in the past week of any state, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
An average of 39,394 Californians have been getting sick by the day in the past week, increasing by nearly a quarter from the average two weeks ago.
The number of hospitalizations on Monday increased to 19,766 patients, where 4,294 remained in the ICU. Just 1,385 ICU beds are available statewide, according to the COVID Act Now project.
Holiday travel surges despite warnings
Despite warnings from local, state and federal public health officials, nearly 3.8 million people passed through TSA checkpoints in airports during the period of Dec. 23 to Dec. 26, with about 1.3 million passing through on Sunday alone making it the busiest travel day since March, The New York Times reports.
A New York Times analysis shows the U.S. added 188,934 new coronavirus cases and 1,899 new deaths on Monday, bringing the total past 19.3 million cases and to at least 335,141 deaths. There was an average of 183,124 cases per day in the past week, decreasing slightly by 13% from the total two weeks earlier.
As of Monday, 121,325 people nationwide remained hospitalized. Of those, 22,592 remained in ICUs, according to the latest numbers from the COVID tracking project.