COVID-19 surge: The remarkable rate we hit in Fresno County and the milestone passed
In their first coronavirus update of the new year on Tuesday, Fresno County health officials reported almost 2,750 new cases of COVID-19 among county residents over a four-day span since Dec. 31.
The 2,747 lab-confirmed cases drove the average rate of daily new coronavirus cases in the county to a raw calculation of 53.3 per 100,000 residents – more than triple the seven-day average of fewer than 17 per 100,000 residents calculated a week ago. It’s also the highest average daily rate of new cases since early September.
Tuesday’s report by the Fresno County Department of Public Health also pushed the county beyond the 150,000-case threshold since the first local COVID-19 infection was confirmed in early March 2020.
With four days left in this first week of 2022, Fresno County already has more new cases reported this week than in any full week since Sept. 11.
Other Valley counties also saw dramatic increases in cases over the past seven days, sending their rates of new cases per 100,000 residents two to three times higher as well:
Kings County: 70.3 new daily cases per 100,000 residents as of Tuesday, up from 25.7 on Dec. 28.
Madera County: 49.7 new daily cases per 100,000 residents, up from 14.6 on Dec. 28.
Merced County: 58.6 new daily cases per 100,000 residents, up from 18.6 on Dec. 28.
Tulare County: 28.5 new daily cases per 100,000 residents, up from 11.8 on Dec. 28.
To date, 152,674 people in Fresno County have contracted the virus. Of those cases, 2,379 people have died from the coronavirus and the respiratory disease and complications it causes.
In other Valley counties, Tuesday updates included:
Kings County: 613 new cases reported since Dec. 30, 34,990 to date; two additional deaths over the past week, 389 to date.
Madera County: 417 new cases between Dec. 30 and Tuesday, 25,058 to date; eight additional deaths over the past week, 332 to date for the pandemic.
Mariposa County: 58 new cases between Dec. 30 and Monday, 1,794 to date. The number of fatalities from COVID-19 remains at 18, unchanged since late November.
Merced County: 885 new cases since Dec. 30, 48,005 to date; seven additional deaths over the past week put the pandemic’s death toll at 706 as of Tuesday.
Tulare County: 795 new cases since Dec. 30, 72,455 to date through Tuesday; 15 additional fatalities were reported since Dec. 30 as well, 1,166 to date.
Omicron variant spreads
The omicron variant of the coronavirus, first reported in November in countries in the southern part of the African continent, continues its rapid spread across the U.S. and the world.
Since the first U.S. case of COVID-19 from the omicron strain was confirmed just over a month ago in San Francisco, cases have multiplied quickly to the point where in the past two weeks it has supplanted the delta variant as the dominant form of the virus in the U.S.
Joe Prado, assistant director of the Fresno County Department of Public Health, said Monday that genomic sequencing of positive coronavirus tests have confirmed at least 20 cases caused by the omicron variant in the county.
Because of the two- to three-week lag between when a test sample is collected from a nasal swab and the results of the genomic sequencing, Prado added, the number of actual omicron variant cases is likely much higher in the county.
On Tuesday, Madera County’s health department reported its first confirmed omicron variant case of COVID-19. In recent weeks, both Tulare and Kings counties have also acknowledged confirmed cases from the omicron variant.
In Merced County, traces of the omicron variant have turned up in wastewater samples in recent weeks. Prado said wastewater surveillance in Fresno County has also detected the variant.
This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 4:51 PM.
