Fresno-area’s spike pushes COVID-19 high on June’s causes of death list. See where it stands
June was the deadliest month yet for the coronavirus pandemic in Fresno County and neighboring counties in the central San Joaquin Valley. Health officials in the region’s six counties reported 112 deaths during the month – a 38% increase over May, and 120% more than April.
The largest number of deaths to date has been in Tulare County, where 42 deaths in June brought the total number of lives lost there to 246.
And so far, July is off to an inauspicious start. Tulare, Fresno and Kings counties each reported two additional deaths on Wednesday, the first day of July. On Thursday morning, health officials in Tulare County reported five more fatalities from the virus; two more deaths were announced Thursday afternoon in Fresno County .
The growing number of deaths has vaulted COVID-19, and the respiratory disease caused by the virus, into a place among what have been the historic leading causes of June deaths in the Valley. Across the Valley, coronavirus disease ranked behind only heart disease and cancer for the number of lives claimed.
The calculation is based on the 15 leading causes of death for June in 2016, 2017 and 2018 in Valley counties, as reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 last month then is compared to the June averages for the historic three-year period.
At 112 deaths last month, COVID-19 would rank as the third-leading cause of death behind heart diseases and cancer.
The historic leading causes of death for June from 2016 to 2018 – the most recent year for which data is available from the CDC – across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties, are:
- Heart diseases: 271 deaths on average
- Cancer: 216 deaths on average
- Accidents: 84 deaths on average
- Stroke: 63 deaths on average
- Alzheimer’s disease: 56 deaths on average
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases (such as emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and others): 51 deaths on average
- Diabetes: 34 deaths on average
- Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis: 34 deaths on average
- Hypertension and related renal disease: 27 deaths on average
- Influenza and pneumonia: 21 deaths on average
Rounding out the 15 leading causes of death in the Valley are suicide, 17 deaths on average in June; nephritis and other kidney diseases, 13 deaths; and homicide, septicemia and Parkinson’s disease, each at 11 deaths on average in June.
In Fresno County, 38 fatalities were attributed to the coronavirus in June, more than the death toll of 35 from March, April and May combined. With two more deaths reported Wednesday, the total number of lives lost in Fresno County because of coronavirus stands at 75 since the first cases of COVID-19 in the Valley were reported on March 6 and the county’s first death on April 3.
As a cause of death compared to historic leading causes for the month in Fresno County, the novel coronavirus rates behind heart disease, cancer and accidents, and ahead of strokes and Alzheimer’s disease.
Through March, April and May, Kings County experienced only five deaths from the virus. But another 25 deaths were reported in June, launching the county to a total of 30 by the end of the month – on a percentage basis, that represents an increase of 500% since the end of May.
This story was originally published July 2, 2020 at 8:03 AM.
