July fatalities from COVID-19 among top causes of death in Fresno, nearby counties
In Fresno County and across the central San Joaquin Valley, more deaths in July were attributed to COVID-19 than the average toll taken by almost all other leading causes of death for the month, outside of heart disease and cancer.
And in the same month that the first reported death of a juvenile from coronavirus was confirmed in the Valley, high school students shared their concerns that many in their age group are not taking seriously the threat posed by the virus.
The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, was deemed as the cause of death for 65 people in Fresno County last month. That would rank third in comparison behind the three-year July historical averages for heart disease and cancer, and ahead of accidents and strokes.
From 2016 through 2018, the leading causes of death in July in Fresno County were heart disease, cancer, and vehicle accidents, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Heart diseases claimed an average of 126 lives in July of those years, while an average of 111 July deaths were attributed to cancer. Accidents were blamed for an average of 40 July deaths over the three-year period.
The same pattern plays out in the broader Valley as well. Across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties, the collective number of lives lost to COVID-19 was 206. Compared to the July averages from 2016 through 2018, that also ranks third regionally behind heart disease and cancer, and ahead of accidents and strokes.
Since the first local cases surfaced in the Valley in early March, July has been the deadliest month of the pandemic, both in Fresno County and the region overall.
In the pandemic thus far, about 16,000 Fresno County residents, and more than 36,000 people in the six-county Valley region, have tested positive for the virus.
In that time, the disease has claimed nearly 140 lives in Fresno County and almost 470 in the six-county region. COVID-19 also ranks third among the leading causes of death for the four-month period from April 1 through July 31, compared to the averages of the same period from 2016 through 2018.
Most – but not all – COVID-19 deaths are older
July also represented the state’s first confirmed death of a juvenile from COVID-19, a Valley teenager who died last week at Valley Children’s Hospital. The death was acknowledged Friday by the state Department of Public Health, Valley Children’s and Fresno County’s interim health officer, Dr. Rais Vohra, who was choked with emotion as he discussed the situation in a Zoom teleconference with reporters.
“This is the first death in California of a teenager, and this young person had underlying health conditions,” the state Department of Public Health reported in its press release. “There have been no reported deaths in younger age categories, including children 5 and under.”
While not specifically confirming that the teen was from Fresno County, Vohra affirmed that the teen’s death was being investigated by Fresno County and the state. Fresno County’s coronavirus mortality dashboard, updated last Thursday, does not yet reflect the juvenile’s death. The state health department, as of Tuesday, continued to report only one death statewide of a person under 18 years old.
Of Fresno County’s 138 deaths from April through July, most have been among people 65 and older. Thirty residents who died were ages 65 and 74, while 67 others were age 75 or older. While coronavirus disease was attributed as the cause of death on their death certificates, according to the county health department, 75 of those senior citizens also had “co-morbidities,” or “other significant conditions contributing to death but not resulting in the underlying cause of death.…”
Of 34 people between the ages of 45 and 64 who died from COVID-19, only nine had no other known co-morbidities. Only one person among seven who died between the ages of 18 and 44 had no other underlying conditions, according to the county’s data.
The most common underlying conditions noted by the county among coronavirus deaths were diabetes, hypertension or high blood pressure, lung disease, heart disease, liver disease, immune disorders, and asthma.
Many young people ignoring health advice
The concentration of coronavirus fatalities among older generations may be a factor in younger people paying less heed to advice aimed at curbing the spread of the contagion: maintaining physical distancing, avoiding social gatherings, and wearing face masks.
A pair of Valley high school students, talking with reporters in a Zoom teleconference with the Fresno County Public Health Department last week, said they see many of their peers disregarding warnings over COVID-19.
Arjan Batth, 17, a Selma resident who will be a senior this fall at Visalia’s El Diamante High School, and Alyssa White, a 16-year-old junior at Redwood High in Visalia, recently collaborated on a children’s book entitled “Dear Humans,” about environmental awareness and climate change. Arjan was the author for the story, while Alyssa provided the illustrations.
“Unfortunately, people my age that I’ve noticed aren’t really adhering to the social distancing rules and mask,” Arjan said. “People our age are usually very social and want to see their friends, so I think the stay-at-home order has been hard for many people in my age group because they’ve been cut off from their social circles temporarily.”
Alyssa, whose mother is a nurse who “always reminds me of how dangerous this disease or virus is,” had similar observations.
“My group, we’re all kind of introverted, so we don’t really go outside anyway,” she said with a chuckle. “So we’re used to contacting each other through social media. That hasn’t been a problem, but there are definitely kids our age who are just not caring, wearing masks, goofing off. It’s very sad to see.”
Arjan said he believes many young people don’t believe they’ll be affected by COVID-19. He added that he’s more careful because his multigenerational household includes his grandparents, who he said he knows are more susceptible to complications from coronavirus.
“I think at this point many people in my age group are just kind of frustrated, especially because we’re younger, we’re healthier, we’re not at risk for COVID-19 as much as the older generation is,” he said. “Unfortunately, people in my age group have not been taking it seriously, from my perspective.”
This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 2:28 PM.
