Fresno County hits COVID low rarely seen in last four months. See the latest data
For only the second time in four months, fewer than 100 new cases of coronavirus were reported Wednesday in Fresno County.
The Fresno County Department of Public Health reported 79 new cases since its Tuesday afternoon update. That tally, along with 53 cases on Feb. 25, are the only two dates since early November in which new daily cases were under 100. So far this week, the county has reported 560 COVID-19 infections confirmed through testing.
Since the first local cases in the global pandemic were confirmed in the central San Joaquin Valley just over a year ago, 96,744 people in Fresno County have tested positive for the virus at some point, whether they experienced symptoms of the respiratory disease or not.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Fresno County reported 10 additional deaths since Tuesday’s update. The cumulative number of lives lost in the county to COVID-19 stands at 1,519, more than half of which have been reported since Jan. 1, 2021.
Data from the state Department of Public Health indicates that hospitals throughout Fresno County were treating 142 confirmed inpatient cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, including 36 who were sick enough to require treatment in intensive-care units. In addition, hospitals were caring for 29 patients suspected of having COVID-19 but for whom tests had not confirmed the disease.
Around the Valley
Among neighboring counties in the central San Joaquin Valley, Wednesday updates included:
Kings County: 24 new cases, 22, 250 to date; no additional deaths, 229 to date. Of the totals, state prisons in Avenal and Corcoran have accounted for more than 7,200 infections and 17 deaths.
Madera County: four new cases, 15,636 to date; no additional deaths, 222 to date. State prisons near Chowchilla account for 2,451 of the county’s cases.
Mariposa County: one new case, 396 to date; no additional deaths, seven to date.
Merced County: 43 new cases, 29,643 to dat; one additional death, 417 to date.
Tulare County: 33 new cases, 48,432 to date; five additional deaths, 781 to date.
Throughout the six-county region, the number of people who have been infected with COVID-19 over the past year has grown to more than 213,000, including 3,175 people who have died.
Across the Valley, 242 patients were in hospitals Tuesday with confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 53 in intensive-care units. Another 44 suspected coronavirus cases were also under hospital care.
The state Department of Public Health reported 6,412 new COVID-19 cases statewide on Tuesday, the most recent date for which information was available, bringing the total infections to date to more than 3.5 million. The state also reported 226 additional fatalities from the coronavirus, pushing the death toll in California to 54,621.
This story was originally published March 10, 2021 at 5:10 PM.
