Eighteen new COVID-19 deaths reported in Fresno County update, 38 total deaths in region
Almost 20 more deaths attributed to coronavirus disease were reported Friday by the Fresno County Department of Public Health – a surge representing lives lost since the county’s last update on Tuesday.
The 18 deaths announced on Friday bring to 138 the number of Fresno County residents who have succumbed to COVID-19 since the first local deaths in the global pandemic happened in March.
In addition to the Fresno County fatalities, five more deaths were reported Friday in Tulare County, Madera County health officials reported the deaths of two more residents, two additional fatalities reported by in Kings County,and Merced County announced 11 more deaths.
Valley Children’s hospital in Madera on Friday also reported the death of a youth to COVID-19. It’s the first death of a youth in the state caused by COVID-19. Hospital and state did not state the age of the youth who died.
Together, the sobering figures revealed Friday add up to 38 lives lost in the central San Joaquin Valley..
Across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Merced and Tulare counties, the virus and the respiratory disease it causes have been blamed for 454 total deaths since the pandemic began. Of those, 208 occurred in July, making this the deadliest month of the pandemic by far in the Valley.
New local cases
In addition to the deaths, Fresno County also reported 127 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 among residents in the county, bringing the number of people who have tested positive for the virus at some point over the past five months to 14,439.
Of those, 4,852 are considered to have recovered, based on being symptom-free for 10 days after testing positive or passing 24 hours since their symptoms – such as fever, cough and other respiratory difficulties – subsided.
Health officials in Fresno County have acknowledged that they are reporting a smaller proportion of recoveries because the volume of new cases has overwhelmed the county’s capacity to follow up with contact tracing or medical investigations of all of the confirmed infections.
Around the Valley
Friday COVID-19 status updates from Valley counties included:
Madera County: 57 new cases, 1,943 to date; 2 additional deaths, 30 to date.
Mariposa County: one new case, 54 to date; no new deaths, 2 to date.
Merced County: 220 new cases, 4,285 to date; 11 additional deaths, 50 to date.
Tulare County: 213 new cases, 9,454 to date; five additional deaths, 178 to date.
Kings County: 234 new cases, 4,380 to date; two additional deaths, 56 to date. Of the Kings County cases, 1,617 are associated with state prisons in Avenal and Corcoran. Six of the deaths are also connected with the prisons.
The cumulative number of people who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus since early March now exceeds 34,300 throughout the six-county region.
The Valley has registered an average of about 785 new COVID-19 cases each day over the past two weeks. The daily average number of deaths over the same period is about 8.6 per day.
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 4:41 PM.
