Coronavirus cases climbing. Fresno County now tops region in number of confirmed infections
Fresno County added almost 160 confirmed new coronavirus infections since Saturday afternoon, and three more deaths were attributed to the virus, as the number of cases and deaths continue to grow.
The new cases reported Monday afternoon by the county’s Department of Public Health bring to more than 2,700 the cumulative number of Fresno County residents who have, at some point over the past three months, tested positive for the virus.
Of those cases, 55 patients have died from the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
Fresno County did not provide an update on Sunday. Monday’s report resulted in Fresno County overtaking neighboring Tulare County in the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases among central San Joaquin Valley counties. On Monday morning, the Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency added 82 more cases to its total, which now stands at 2,646.
Tulare County continues to have the region’s highest number of deaths blamed on the virus. There, 98 people have died.
Across the central San Joaquin Valley, the number of confirmed positive tests to date stands at 7,835, while 172 deaths have been reported in the six-county region.
Around the Valley, Monday’s updates included:
Fresno County: 159 new cases, 2,706 to date; three more deaths, 55 to date; 1,865 active cases; 786 recovered.
Kings County: 26 new cases, 1,831 to date; two new deaths, eight to date. Of the total cases, 1,000 are associated with inmates or staff at state prisons in the county. The county has 1,159 active cases and 664 recovered.
Madera County: 27 new cases since Friday afternoon, 226 to date; no new deaths, three to date; 78 active cases, 145 recovered.
Mariposa County: One new case, 17 to date; no new deaths, one to date; one active case, 15 recovered.
Merced County: No update as of 7 p.m. Monday. On Friday, the county reported 18 new cases, 409 to date; no new deaths, seven to date; 116 active cases, 286 recovered.
Tulare County: 82 new cases, 2,646 to date; no new deaths, 98 to date; 711 active cases, 1,837 recovered.
While Merced County did not update its case count on Monday afternoon, the health department confirmed that eight employees at a almond processing plant in Livingston had tested positive for infection by the coronavirus.
The outbreak is at the Hughson Nut Company. Health officials said portions of the plant where the employees worked have been closed and are being disinfected. The employees, and those co-workers with whom they had close contact, were ordered to quarantine in their homes. All of the employees at the plant were urged to be tested for COVID-19.
More businesses reopen
The three-day surge of more than 400 cases in the Valley comes as counties work to gradually reopen segments of their economies that were shut down by state and local stay-at-home orders aimed at hampering the spread of the virus. Health officers across the Valley, including Fresno County interim health officer Dr. Rais Vohra, continue to urge people practice physical distancing of six feet between persons, or to wear face coverings – and to use them properly covering both the nose and mouth – when they are out in public and cannot maintain social distancing.
As more businesses open, however, a significant number of residents are resisting or ignoring the face-mask recommendations.
“Overall we feel like we’re at a point where reopening parts of the economy seems to be the prudent thing to do to get people back to work, to get people exercising, to get people hopefully in a better state of mental health,” Vohra said Friday.
Vohra said residents’ failure to take the cautionary recommendations seriously, despite evidence that people who are infected but have no symptoms can spreading the contagion through their exhaled breath, may potentially jeopardize the progress toward reopening stores, restaurants, and other businesses that were financially hammered by the closure orders. An ongoing or renewed increase in infections “could make us invoke surge protocols” and roll back some openings.
“I think a lot of the indignation and a lot of the anxiety and frustration that people have expressed about this quarantine is really just the expression of withdrawal,” Vohra said. “You really can’t reason through facts and statistics when you’re in that anxiety state.”
This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 5:12 PM.
