Coronavirus update: Fresno reports 875 new cases as California pushes to reopen schools
Fresno County added 875 new COVID-19 cases to the countywide tally on Wednesday, bringing the total to 65,149 infections since March.
Though local data reported on Wednesday did not report any new coronavirus deaths, officials with Cal/OSHA told The Fresno Bee they were notified Dec. 28 that a Foster Farms worker infected in a plant COVID-19 outbreak had died.
It’s unclear whether the Foster Farms death is accounted for in the total number of deaths reported in state data. Delays in reporting are expected this week due to the holidays and many public agencies being closed, local health officials confirmed. That could explain why the number of deaths has not been updated since last week, which currently totals 646 residents who have died since March.
The death follows a 193-person COVID-19 outbreak earlier this month at the Cherry Avenue Foster Farms poultry plant in south Fresno.
There was a slight decrease in hospitalizations Wednesday, down by 25 individuals, which means there are now 652 hospitalized people with COVID-19. Of those, 136 are in the ICU, county data shows. The ICU received an additional 18 patients on Wednesday. There are just seven beds available countywide.
The six-county region that makes up the central San Joaquin Valley reported an additional 1,811 new cases on Wednesday, followed by 15 additional deaths.
Nearly 200 Fresno-area medical professionals receive COVID-19 vaccine
About 170 medical professionals received the Moderna coronavirus vaccination Thursday in Fresno.
Organized by Clinica Sierra Vista and deployed by CVS, “frontline staff, providers, nurses and medical assistants” took the first round of the two-step vaccination at Elm Community Health Center in Fresno.
In a brief statement Thursday, Clinica Sierra Vista said the Fresno County Health Department approved the vaccine’s deployment. The group said about 10 of the vaccinations would be received in front of cameras.
California reports nearly 4,500 ICU patients statewide
California is grappling with its worse surge in coronavirus cases as at least 2,261,989 people have contracted the virus since the pandemic began, which includes 31,268 added Wednesday. Four hundred twenty-four more people died Wednesday from COVID-19 complications, bringing the total to 25,411 statewide.
There were 300,696 people, or about 1% of the statewide population, that were vaccinated as of Wednesday, including the state’s health care workers and residents of long term care facilities.
About 21,433 people remained hospitalized, including 4,478 people in the ICU, data from the Covid tracking project shows.
Prioritizing the need for young students to get back to school, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced an ambitious $2 billion plan to get kids back into the classroom in February.
The goal is to find a strategy where the children can return safely without spreading the virus. That’s why state officials are drafting a plan to adopt safety procedures that include routine testing for all school staff members and students, a mask mandate, a contact tracing system, and vaccine priority for school workers.
A new state dashboard will track any potential outbreaks.
The plan includes allocating a $450 stipend per student to school districts that offer in-person instruction. Additional funds will be allocated to school districts with higher populations of low-income families, foster kids, and English language learners, The New York Times reports.
On Wednesday, Newsom announced the new COVID-19 strain originally found in Europe had arrived in California, making it the second state to identify the potentially more contagious variant. The new strain identified in a 30-year-old man from San Diego County was first reported in Colorado in two individuals earlier this week.
National health officials are not surprised the new variant had arrived in the U.S. as viruses mutate and spread with regularity. Health officials confirmed the coronavirus vaccine currently being distributed is expected to provide immunity to the new strain.
U.S. braces for new year with continued growth in COVID-19 cases, deaths
The pandemic altered and rocked the nation in 2020, where millions of Americans got sick, and hundreds of thousands died. The death toll from the fatal disease surpassed the population of some cities, including St. Louis and Cincinnati, The New York Times reports. With the new year approaching and the world bracing for 2021, the U.S. continues to set new records for the number of cases and deaths.
The coronavirus’ spread in the U.S. has now killed a total of 342,577 people, with an additional 3,808 deaths reported Wednesday. More than 19.7 million people had been infected nationwide as of Wednesday, where 229,349 new cases were reported.
In the past seven days, an average of 183,287 Americans have been getting sick per day. There are 125,220 people hospitalized nationwide, where 23,069 are in the ICU.
This story was originally published December 31, 2020 at 8:33 AM.