COVID fatalities surge in Fresno this week. Here’s the virus’ death toll to date
Deaths blamed by doctors on COVID-19 on official death certificates in Fresno County soared to their highest point in more than seven months this week, pushing the county to more than 2,000 lives lost to the coronavirus over the past 19 months.
Through Friday, 54 deaths from COVID-19 were reported this week by the Fresno County Department of Public Health – the most fatalities from the virus since late February. Ten deaths acknowledged Friday by county and state health officials came on the heels of Thursday’s report of 21 fatalities, nine on Wednesday and 14 on Monday.
Since the first confirmed COVID-19 infections in the central San Joaquin Valley in early March 2020, 2,018 Fresno County residents have lost their lives to the respiratory disease and other complications caused by the coronavirus.
Dr. Rais Vohra, interim health officer with the Fresno County Department of Public Health, acknowledged last week that the county experienced more deaths in September than any month since February – and added that October could be even deadlier.
“Unfortunately, that number is going to continue to climb, and it may be as bad in October as it was in September,” Vohra said. He added that fatalities are a lagging indicator compared to new infections and hospitalizations, “and the death numbers mount as those other numbers (for new infections and hospitalizations) are falling.”
Eight days into the month of October, 61 deaths from COVID-19 have been reported in Fresno County – more than one-third of September’s full-month total of 167.
A similar pattern is playing out in the Valley. As the number of new infections from a summer surge fueled by the spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus slowly declines, deaths are increasing.
Over the six-county central San Joaquin Valley – Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties – 94 fatalities from COVID-19 have been reported this week through Friday. As in Fresno County, that’s the highest total for any week since late February, and propelled the region’s cumulative death toll to more than 4,100.
Valleywide, there were 300 deaths attributed to the coronavirus in all of September. Through the first eight days of October, 114 COVID-19 deaths have been reported by Valley health officials.
This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 11:16 AM.
