Vaccinated employees crucial for Fresno-area businesses with California tiers expiring
As the number of new coronavirus cases reported in Fresno County reaches levels not seen in more than a year, the county’s top health official said revised state guidelines taking effect in several weeks will continue to require residents to wear face masks in certain indoor settings.
New workplace rules are also expected next month to guide how employers should protect their staffers, Dr. Rais Vohra told members of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
Workers getting vaccinated would simplify that process, Vohra said. “For employees that are vaccinated, they’re really going to be free to move about the cabin; guidelines will be very flexible,” he said.
“For folks that are not yet vaccinated, we’re going to have to think about how to keep them safe,” he added. “There are going to be some restrictions on that group.” Vohra expects CalOSHA, the state’s workplace safety regulator, to issue new rules in June.
Vohra noted that California will eliminate the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, the system of color-coded tiers that provided for gradual reopening of business sectors and social activities based on the risk of COVID-19 transmission from person to person within each of the state’s 58 counties. But while the blueprint disappears on June 15, other types of regulations will remain in place.
Health officials have said they believe easing restrictions on people who are fully vaccinated against coronavirus – receiving both shots of the two-dose vaccines by Pfizer or Moderna, or a single dose of the one-shot Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine – will help people overcome vaccine hesitancy.
Since the first vaccines became available in mid-December, more than 334,000 Fresno County residents are now considered fully vaccinated. That’s a little more than one-third of the county’s total population. But Vorha and other county health leaders have said it will take a vaccination rate of 65% to 75% or more of the population to provide a level of “herd immunity” to reduce the number of people among whom the virus can spread from person to person.
The latest numbers
Nineteen new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported Tuesday in Fresno County – the smallest number of cases reported in a single weekday since late April 2020. Over the past seven days, 276 new cases arose in the county, as well as five deaths.
In almost 15 months since the first local cases in the global coronavirus pandemic, the number of cases in Fresno County has grown to more about 102,300 people. Of those, 1,698 deaths have been attributed to the respiratory disease.
In other Valley counties, Tuesday updates include:
- Kings County: Four new cases, 25 over the past seven days, 23,042 to date; no additional deaths Tuesday or over the past week, 247 to date.
- Madera County: Six new cases, 30 over the past seven days; 16,420 to date; one additional death, 244 to date.
- Mariposa County: One new case Tuesday, four over the past week, 454 to date; no additional deaths, seven to date.
- Merced County: 11 new cases Tuesday, 143 over the past seven days, 32,093 to date; no additional deaths, five in the past week, 468 to date.
- Tulare County: 28 new cases Tuesday, 121 over the past seven days, 50,134 to date; no additional deaths, one over the past week, 842 to date.
Since the first Valley cases in March 2020, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Valley to date is 224,432, including 3,506 deaths.
This story was originally published May 25, 2021 at 5:57 PM.
