Almost 2,700 new COVID cases in Fresno this week as delta spreads. Here’s the latest data
New coronavirus cases continue to mount in Fresno County this week, with state and county health officials reporting almost 2,700 from Sunday through Saturday.
Those were among nearly 5,300 cases reported this week across the six-county central San Joaquin Valley – Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties.
Both represent the largest number of weekly cases since late January and early February. That’s when the Valley was on a downward slope from a winter surge in December and January.
Friday’s updates from the region’s counties included:
- Fresno County: 424 cases on Friday, 368 cases on Saturday, 2,677 from Sunday through Saturday, and 111,315 to date since the first local case in the global pandemic was reported in March 2020. Six deaths were reported this week in the county, 1,759 to date. The 2,677 cases is the highest weekly total since late January in Fresno County.
- Kings County: 116 new cases Friday, 74 on Saturday; 672 this week through Saturday, 25,388 to date. Two deaths were reported this week, 258 to date.
- Madera County: 64 new cases Friday, 319 this week, 17,903 to date. No additional fatalities were reported this week, leaving the death toll at 249 to date.
- Mariposa County: Six new cases Friday, 64 this week through Friday, 700 to date. Three additional deaths were reported this week, 10 to date.
- Merced County: In its once-weekly update Friday, 927 new cases were reported Friday, 35,485 to date. Seven additional deaths were reported this week, 499 to date.
- Tulare County: The county only reports once weekly on Wednesday, and this week reported 612 new cases, 52,002 to date. Two additional deaths were reported this week, 855 to date.
The region’s totals to date are 242,793 confirmed COVID-19 cases over the past 18 months, including 3,630 fatalities.
Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim health officer, said Friday that the county’s case totals include 347 laboratory-confirmed cases of the delta variant, a highly contagious strain that emerged last fall in India and has rapidly made its way around the world.
But, Vohra added, that number is almost certainly a “vast undercount” because of limitations in the number of positive coronavirus tests that are submitted to state health laboratories for the genomic sequencing needed to track which variant is responsible for an infection.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that the delta variant is estimated to be related to more than 99% of new COVID-19 infections in the U.S. over the first two weeks of August. Limited testing of postive coronavirus tests in California indicates that more than 98% of new infections in California are from the delta variant.
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 also climbed in Fresno County and Valleywide to levels not seen since February. As of Thursday, there were 358 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections in hospitals across Fresno County, compared to 95 a month earlier. That includes 68 COVID patients sick enough to require treatment in intensive-care units in the county.
Valleywide, the number of inpatient hospitalizations for coronavirus was 638 on Thursday, including both confirmed and suspected cases. Of those, 114 were being treated in intensive-care units across the six-county region.
This story was originally published August 20, 2021 at 6:07 PM.
