Coronavirus update: Fresno County cases spike again, as state surpasses 40,000 deaths

Coronavirus cases in Fresno County fell sharply this week, going from 534 at the beginning of the week to 213, the fewest for any day in 2021.

But the daily COVID-19 number went up again on Friday, with 515 new cases reported by the county and the California Department of Public Health, bringing the total to 87,401 since the first case hit the state a little more than one year ago.

Hospitalizations in the county were at the lowest number for any single day since mid-December, with 500, including 92 in intensive care.

But Dr. Rais Vohra, the interim health officer for the Fresno County Department of Health, cautioned that it is too soon for people to let down their guard against the virus.

“What we don’t want is another surge happening because people are getting reckless in terms of their behavior,” Vohra said.

Fresno County

• 515 new cases; 87,4021 total
• 15 new deaths, 1,137 total
• 500 hospitalized, -33 from previous day

Kings County

• 117 new cases; 20,328 total
• 8 new deaths; 169 total
• 81 hospitalized, +5 from previous day

Madera County

• 104 new cases; 14,301 total
• 0 new deaths; 175 total
• 67 hospitalized, +4 from previous day

Mariposa County

• 1 new case; 334 total
• 0 new deaths; 5 total
• 0 hospitalized

Merced County

• 181 new cases; 25,620 total
• 10 new deaths; 349 total
• 52 hospitalized; -1 from previous day

Tulare County

• 280 new cases; 43,742 total
• 31 new deaths; 573 total
• 153 hospitalized; no change from previous day

Kern County reported the largest number of new coronavirus cases in the Valley on Friday, with 616 infections. Kern County has seen a total of 92,992 during the pandemic, according to the county Public Health Services Department.

With the new cases, roughly 1 in 10 Kern County residents have tested positive for the coronavirus.

San Joaquin County also had a high number of new cases, with 496 bringing its total to 60,627.

Across the state, there are now six counties with more than 100,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus – Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego, Orange, and Santa Clara County, which reported 738 new cases on Friday to bring its total to 100,470.

Statewide, the CDPH reported 19,337 new cases and a total of 3,205,947.

California surpasses 40,000 coronavirus-related deaths

While the number of new cases and hospitalizations have decreased across the state, the number of deaths remains high. California now has more than 40,000 COVID-19 deaths, according to an update late Friday night from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at John Hopkins University.

The CSSE is counting 40,238 deaths, second most in the United States behind New York and its 43,278 deaths.

J&J to apply for emergency use authorization for new vaccine

California continues to lag behind other Western states in administering the coronavirus vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Only 3.1 million of 5.6 million doses that have been delivered to the state have been used, 54.5%, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker.

Only 6.1% of the population has received at least one shot, and 1.2% have received both doses of the vaccine.

Fresno County this week had to pause vaccination sites at the Fresno Fairgrounds and the Sierra Pacific Orthopedic Center due to a lack of supply allocated by the state. The fairgrounds site had been providing about 1,500 vaccinations a day to health care workers and seniors 75 and older.

But a third vaccine could be approved for use soon.

Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 single-shot vaccine was shown to be 66% effective in preventing moderate and severe disease in a global Phase 3 trial, the company announced Friday. The vaccine is 85% effective overall at preventing hospitalization and death in all regions where it was tested. Its efficacy against moderate and severe disease ranged from 72% in the U.S. to 66% in Latin America and 57% in South Africa.

The company is compiling data on the vaccine and will apply to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization.

In states west of the Rocky Mountains, only Idaho has administered a smaller percentage of vaccine doses than California, with 51.6%.