Weekend brings new surge of COVID cases, hospitalizations to Fresno County
Almost 900 new coronavirus cases were reported by state and county health officials in Fresno County over the weekend, driving the total number of infections to more than 107,000 since the first local cases were identified 17 months ago.
Saturday’s report of 323 new COVID-19 cases pushed last week’s total to 1,903, more than any single week since mid-February. Another 319 cases were acknowledged on Sunday, and there were 217 additional cases reported on Monday.
The new cases last week and through the weekend represent a continued surge in the spread of coronavirus in Fresno County that largely mirrors what’s been happening statewide – a steady week-by-week rise in cases in the weeks after California declared a full reopening of the state’s economy on June 15.
That’s the date when the state – then experiencing a broad lull in new cases and a smaller number of hospitalizations following a winter spike – lifted many of the restrictions on businesses and activities under the color-coded Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
It’s also about the same time that a relatively new strain of the coronavirus, the delta variant, began to spread rapidly in California and the U.S. The delta variant, which emerged last fall in India, is estimated to account for almost 95% of new cases in the nation in recent weeks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
Joe Prado, assistant director of the Fresno County Department of Public Health, said that as of Friday, his office had been notified of 147 confirmed delta variant cases. That’s up from 87 a week earlier.
“We know that is the very tip of the iceberg” of delta cases, said Dr. Rais Vohra, the county’s interim health officer, based on the small proportion of positive COVID-19 tests that are submitted to the state for more advanced genetic sequencing to determine variant strains of the virus.
As cases surge in Fresno County, hospitals are also seeing a sharp increase in the number of people who are sick enough with COVID-19 to require admission for inpatient care – a figure that has more than doubled in less than two weeks.
On July 28, 100 patients were hospitalized across Fresno County for COVID-19. On Sunday, there were 214 patients in hospitals for confirmed coronavirus infections, more than any single day since February. Of those, 41 required treatment intensive-care units – also the largest number of patients in ICUs across Fresno County since February.
Vohra last week expressed concern that the increase in hospitalizations could soon begin to affect the ability of hospitals to handle not only coronavirus patients but others who require hospitalization for many other medical needs and illnesses.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that we will survive this surge, but … we are going to be very challenged throughout the month of August,” Vohra told reporters Friday. “You’re going to hear about a lot of strain and possibly disruptions in our health care system as a result of these rising case rates.”
The daily rate of new cases in Fresno County has soared from about an average of about two per day per 100,000 residents in mid-June to more than 26 per 100,000 as of Saturday.
In neighboring Kings County, health officials reported 183 new cases from Saturday through Monday, pushing the county’s total to date to 24,222.
As in Fresno County, the pace of new daily COVID-19 cases in Kings County and the number of coronavirus patients in hospitals are higher now than at any point since February, as the winter surge was on the wane.
Madera County reported 110 new cases over Saturday, Sunday and Monday. A total of 17,330 people have had COVID-19 in Madera County since March 2020.
In Mariposa County, health officials reported 28 new cases on Monday, a 5% increase from Friday that brings the total cases there to 587.
Merced and Tulare counties will provide new figures later this week, as both counties now report only once weekly.
Statewide, California has reported more than 134,000 new COVID-19 cases in the past two weeks – or an average of about 9,600 per day. To date, more than 3.9 million cases have been reported in California since February 2020.
This story was originally published August 9, 2021 at 12:47 PM.
