Fresno County approaches 92,000 coronavirus cases, 1,300 deaths in latest update
Hundreds of new cases of coronavirus were confirmed Wednesday through testing in Fresno County, as both case counts and the number of fatalities blamed on COVID-19 continue to climb in the central San Joaquin Valley and the region continues to suffer from too few doses of vaccines to meet demand.
The Fresno County Department of Public Health acknowledged 300 new infections in its Wednesday update, and also reported 25 additional deaths determined since Tuesday to be attributed to COVID-19. Both the new cases and the increase in deaths represent the continuing effects of the coronavirus pandemic in the county, where the first case of the virus was confirmed about 11 months ago.
Since March 2020, 91,730 Fresno County residents have tested positive for the virus at some point, whether they developed symptoms or not. Of those infected, 1,283 have died.
More than 3,200 of those new cases have arisen in just the past 10 days, since Feb. 1. Almost 150 deaths were confirmed in Fresno County during the same 10-day span.
The updated figures come as Fresno County and the rest of the central San Joaquin Valley remain in purple Tier 1 of the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, the color-coded scheme governing the extent to which businesses can be open based on the risk for the novel coronavirus being transmitted from one person to another in a county.
Tier 1, the most stringent of the four tiers, indicates “widespread” risk of viral spread. Fresno, Kings, Madera, Merced and Tulare counties are among 53 California’s 58 counties in the purple tier.
Around the Valley
Wednesday updates from other counties in the central San Joaquin Valley include:
Kings County: 18 new cases, 21,360 to date; one additional death, 200 to date. Almost 7,200 of the cases, and 17 deaths, have been among inmates at state prisons in Avenal and Corcoran.
Madera County: 17 new cases, 14,874 to date; no additional deaths, 189 to date.
Mariposa County: One new case, 381 to date; no additional deaths, five to date.
Merced County: 53 new cases, 27,562 to date; six additional deaths, 373 to date.
Tulare County: 95 new cases, 46,477 to date; 11 additional deaths, 672 to date.
Valleywide, about 202,400 people have contracted COVID-19 over the past 11 months, and 2,722 have died.
