COVID surges upward in Fresno County. How many cases have popped up so far this week?
A renewed upswing in coronavirus infections continues to surge this week in Fresno County and the central San Joaquin Valley, with hundreds of new cases cropping up each day throughout the Valley.
Through Wednesday, almost 1,100 cases have been reported this week in Fresno County. That’s the largest number of new infections in a week since late February, when a vicious winter spike in COVID-19 cases in December and January was winding down.
After a weekend in which no updates were issued, state and county health officials reported 700 cases on Monday, followed by 132 on Tuesday and 261 more on Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, two additional deaths were reported in Fresno County, the first fatalities from COVID-19 since the middle of last week.
The highly contagious delta variant of coronavirus may be a factor in the recent surge in the Valley, as it represented almost 85% of new COVID-19 cases in California last month based on genomic sequencing by state health labs.
Almost 106,000 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed among Fresno County residents since the first cases of the COVID-19 pandemic were reported in the Valley in March 2020. Of those, 1,746 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19.
Health officials in neighboring Valley counties also reported significant increases in new cases this week:
- Kings County: 116 new cases reported Wednesday, 186 so far this week, and 23,906 to date since March 2020; one additional death, 252 to date.
- Tulare County: 453 new cases reported Wednesday, when the county issues its once-weekly updates; 50,731 to date; no additional deaths, 853 to date.
- Madera County: 85 new cases this week through Tuesday, 17,120 to date; no additional deaths, 249 to date. Madera County is expected to update its statistics later Wednesday afternoon.
- Mariposa County: 30 new cases this week through Tuesday – a 6% increase in just two days, 530 to date. The death toll in Mariposa County has remained stable at seven since mid-February. The county is expected to update its figures later Wednesday afternoon.
- Merced County only updates its cases on Fridays. As of July 30, the county had reported 33,321 cases to date and 485 fatalities.
Across the region, more than 231,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the Valley, including 3,592 deaths.
This story was originally published August 4, 2021 at 1:22 PM.
