COVID-19 cases soar to five-month high in Fresno region. See the latest data
Fresno County and the surrounding central San Joaquin Valley experienced more new COVID-19 cases this week than any week since mid-February.
Hospitals across the region also saw the volume of patients sick enough to require inpatient care reach levels not seen since early March.
The latest data reported by the state Department of Public Health and individual county health departments in Valley counties comes as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control show that community levels of coronavirus remain high.
More than 3,700 new laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infections were reported this week over two separate updates on Tuesday and Friday. That’s up from 2,427 for the week ending July 9, and the largest number of any single week since Feb. 19.
Since the end of a vicious winter surge in which case counts in Fresno County climbed to more than 17,000 in January, the smallest number of cases in any single week was less than 300 in the week ending April 23.
Across the region in Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties, new cases topped 6,500 this week for the first time since Feb. 19.
Hospitalizations for coronavirus patients were also up this week. In Fresno County, the 189 people receiving inpatient care for confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Thursday was more than any week since early March. Similarly there were 280 confirmed coronavirus patients in hospitals Valleywide, also the highest number since early March.
Fewer people were being treated in intensive-care units for very serious COVID-19 cases in both Fresno County and the Valley than in March, however.
Also this week, the Valley reached a grim milestone of at least 6,000 deaths attributed to coronavirus infections since the first local cases in the global pandemic in March 2020. Of those, almost 2,800 lives were lost in Fresno County.
To date, more than 254,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported in Fresno County, and more than 534,000 Valleywide, since March 2020.
The following charts show the continuing impacts of COVID-19 – cases, hospitalizations, deaths and vaccinations – in Fresno County and the Valley since the first local cases in the global pandemic were reported in March 2020.
