Gavin Newsom says Central Valley will get a mass vaccination site. Will it be in Fresno?
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced a mass vaccination site will be coming to the Central Valley, though he stopped short of naming a specific location.
Speaking from the site of a mass vaccination center at San Diego’s Petco Park, Newsom said the state has partnered with 110 community organizations statewide to drive up the number of people willing to get a COVID-19 shot.
RingCentral Coliseum in Oakland, where the A’s play, and Cal State LA are also being used for similar mass vaccination sites.
“We’ll be announcing in the next number of days, a new site in the Central Valley, as well,” he said. “That framework is exclusively targeted at equity.”
He also noted plans to mobilize clinics to reach people who can’t easily get to one of the stadiums.
Fresno submitted the Save Mart Center as a location that could be used as a mass site, according to Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias.
It was the only location Fresno offered up, but the location of the site Newsom mentioned for the Valley has not been confirmed as of Monday.
Fresno County added 671 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the first report since Saturday, health officials said. The total is 91,184 since March.
The county reported 30 new deaths from the virus in its first report since Saturday. As of the Monday report, there have been 1,254 fatal cases.
The positivity rate in Fresno County has trended down, and is at 11.4%. That’s more than the state average and down from nearly 20% in mid-January. If the county moves below 8%, it can move out of the purple tier, where the threat of coronavirus is considered “widespread” and the guidelines are the most restrictive.
Vaccines exceed 4.7 million in the state
The California Department of Public Health on its vaccine tracker on Monday reported providers have administered 4,746,539 out of about 7.1 million doses that have been distributed to hospital systems and local health offices, an increase by 95,902 doses from Sunday’s total.
That daily increase is less than half the previous three days’ average of about 220,000 doses administered. Sundays tend to have the fewest vaccination appointments of any day of the week, and the Super Bowl likely drove the total even lower for this Sunday.
The Centers for Disease Control on its tracking dashboard reported that California through Sunday administered 11,852 doses for every 100,000 residents. That ranks 32nd-lowest among the 50 states and Washington, D.C. Last Friday, California ranked 42nd.
Other counties in the Valley
Tulare County reported six new fatal cases on Monday, which brings the total to 651 deaths since the pandemic began. Another 299 cases added brought that total to 46,133.
Merced County tallied five more deaths on Monday, bringing the total to 367. The 290 new cases reported brings that total to 27,424.
Kings County added 51 cases and three deaths, which brings the totals to 21,297 and 197, respectively.
Madera County did not report any new deaths, leaving the total at 184, But did add 194 cases to the running tally. That brings the total to 14,832.
Mariposa County has seen 379 cases and five deaths.
The Sacramento Bee contributed to this story.
This story was originally published February 8, 2021 at 3:45 PM.
