Fresno County COVID-19 deaths hit highest point for a weekend in last 10 months
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A surge of more than two dozen reported fatalities attributed to the novel coronavirus in Fresno County over the weekend continues to drive the two-year-old pandemic’s death toll higher.
In its Monday update, the Fresno County Department of Public Health acknowledged 28 new cases in COVID-19 was noted as the cause of death on official death certificates in the county. That follows 32 deaths for all of the previous week, and 20 in the week ending Feb. 5.
Through the first half of February, 74 coronavirus deaths have been reported in Fresno County, approaching the total of 84 fatalities from the virus for the entire month of January. Since the county’s first confirmed case of COVID-19 in early March 2020, nearly 5,340 people in the county have succumbed to the virus and the respiratory disease it causes.
The actual number of deaths is likely higher because of a lag between the date of a patient’s death and when COVID-19 is confirmed as the cause of death. A fatality is not attributed to coronavirus, health officials say, if a person happens to test positive for COVID-19 but dies of some other illness or trauma.
Fresno County does not provide updates of new cases or deaths over weekends. The 28 additional deaths reported on Monday is the largest number coming out of a weekend since mid-April 2021.
The omicron variant of coronavirus that is responsible for almost all new COVID-19 infections in the U.S. has been described by many health officials as much more contagious, but generally less severe than prior strains including the delta variant that dominated the pandemic last fall.
But doctors add that for vulnerable populations and those who are not yet vaccinated for the coronavirus, the omicron variant remains potentially serious or fatal. More than 90% of the deaths from COVID-19 in 2021 in Fresno County were among people who were not fully vaccinated against the virus.
“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of lives that are being lost as a result of this omicron surge,” Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim health officer, told reporters earlier this month. While in some respects it is milder than prior variants, it’s certainly not the same thing as ‘totally mild.’ And unfortunately we continue to see fatalities going up in all age groups.”
As of Jan. 24, the most recent age-specific death information provided by Fresno County, about 22% of people who have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic reached the Valley were under the age of 60. So far in 2022, that percentage has climbed to about 40%.
Across the six counties of the central San Joaquin Valley – Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties – 157 deaths have been reported in the first half of February. Those are among at least 5,359 fatalities among COVID-19 patients since March 2020.
