Fresno and Kings counties report new COVID cases, with some good news in weekly numbers
More than 350 new coronavirus infections were reported Saturday in Fresno County by the state Department of Public Health, bringing the number of additional cases revealed this week by testing to just over 2,000.
While that translates roughly to a rate of 287 new cases each day since Sunday in the county, that’s the lowest seven-day average – and the fewest cases in a week – in Fresno County since just before Thanksgiving during the early stages of a winter surge that saw weekly new cases soar as high as 9,500 or more in mid- and late December.
The state report indicated that testing revealed 352 cases of COVID-19 since the previous update on Friday. That pushes the total number of confirmed infections in the county to 92,520 since the first local case was identified in early March 2020, more than 11 months ago.
Since the global coronavirus pandemic reached the local area, 1,291 people have died from the disease – or about 1.4% of those infected with the virus in Fresno County. The Fresno County Department of Public Health had reported no additional fatalities as of Saturday afternoon.
The decline in the new-case rate comes as Fresno County continues to struggle to obtain enough doses of COVID-19 vaccines to meet demand – symptomatic of vaccine-supply issues throughout California and across the country. But allocations of doses from the state have been higher in the past two weeks than in January.
Still, as Fresno County and the Valley approach the one-year anniversary of the first local coronavirus cases, more than half of the accumulated infections to date in Fresno County have happened just since the start of this year. Similarly, more than half of all of the deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the county have been reported in the past six weeks.
Also on Saturday, the Kings County Department of Public Health reported 52 new cases and three additional deaths. Of the total 21,585 cases and 208 deaths to date, almost 7,200 of the infections and 17 deaths have been among inmates at state prisons in Avenal and Corcoran.
Madera, Merced and Tulare counties don’t provide updates on weekends. Mariposa County may post a new report late Saturday afternoon.
The hospital situation
Fewer people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were being treated in hospitals for their complications in Fresno County and neighboring Valley counties on Friday than at any time since early December. Data from the state Department of Health Services indicated that as of Friday, 319 people with coronavirus were inpatients in Fresno County hospitals.
That’s the lowest figure since Dec. 1, and less than half the number of patients requiring hospitalization during the peak of a winter surge in early January.
Hospital intensive-care units, however, continue to be affected by the sickest coronavirus patients. Since the peak of ICU demand in Fresno County of 148 patients on Dec. 31, the number of ICU patients remained at 84 on Friday. Health officials said Friday that patient counts are prone to falling more slowly than the overall hospital census because the severity of their illness typically means that their hospital stay lasts for weeks, rather than days for less seriously ill COVID-19 cases.
Valleywide, confirmed coronavirus patients in hospitals numbered 571 on Friday, including 136 who were sick enough to require treatment in intensive-care units.
This story was originally published February 13, 2021 at 2:34 PM.
