COVID-19 cases, deaths surge again in Fresno, Valley region. Here’s the latest toll
More than 1,300 additional central San Joaquin Valley residents were confirmed Tuesday as being infected with the novel coronavirus, as new cases of the contagion and associated deaths continue to increase in the region.
Tuesday was the second consecutive day – and the third in a span of nine days – in which at least 1,100 new COVID-19 cases were identified collectively by counties in the central San Joaquin Valley region.
The day started with the confirmation of almost 700 new cases in Tulare County. Throughout Tuesday, the number of cases surged upward in other counties compared to Monday. For example, more than 360 new cases were reported in Merced County, and almost 130 in Madera County.
In Fresno County, data from the state Department of Public Health reflected a one-day increase of 132 cases, resulting in a cumulative total of 17,978 people who have tested positive for the virus at some point since March.
Fresno County health officials also reported 20 additional deaths blamed on COVID-19 since the previous tally on Friday afternoon. The new fatalities bring to 191 the number of Fresno County residents who have lost their lives to the coronavirus. About 7,280 people have recovered from the virus in the county.
Seven additional deaths attributable to coronavirus disease were also reported by health officials in Tulare, Madera and Merced counties.
In neighboring Valley counties, Tuesday’s updates included:
Kings County: The county’s health department has not provided an update since the evening of Aug. 2. At that time, Kings County reported 4,453 cases, including 1,662 associated with state prisons at Avenal and Corcoran. The county also had 56 deaths, as well as 2,525 people who had recovered from the virus.
Madera County: 127 new cases, 2,590 to date; one additional death, 40 to date; 1,896 people recovered.
Mariposa County: one new case, 63 to date; no additional deaths, two to date; 57 people recovered.
Merced County: 366 new cases, 6,102 to date; four additional deaths, 74 to date; 3,689 people recovered.
Tulare County: 687 new cases, 11,549 to date; two additional deaths, 198 to date; 9,788 people recovered.
The updated counts across the Valley come as the California Department of Public Health asserted that it has fixed problems with its case-reporting database and is catching up to a backlog of cases that had been underreported for days.
Kings County cited the state’s problems for not updating its local public health department website for more than a week, since Aug. 2, while Merced County’s COVID-19 website warned viewers that the figures “are likely an underestimate of true incident cases being reported.”
Death toll continues to rise
As the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 climb throughout California, Fresno and neighboring counties in the central San Joaquin Valley now are among the top one-third of counties in the state with the highest rates of fatalities in the coronavirus pandemic.
While some of California’s more populous counties have a much larger number of people who have lost their lives to the virus, four relatively rural Valley counties fall among the 10 counties in which deaths per 100,000 residents are the greatest: Tulare, Kings, Merced and Madera, with Fresno County lingering not far behind, according to data from local counties and California Department of Public Health.
In Tulare County, where the population is estimated at about 480,000, health officials report that 196 people have died from COVID-19 since the first local cases of the virus were identified in early March. That works out to more than 41 deaths per 100,000 residents in the county – the third-highest rate of deaths in proportion to population behind Imperial County and Los Angeles County.
Imperial County has lost 244 residents to coronavirus disease through Monday, according to the California Department of Health Services, but its population is less than 190,000. That translates to a death rate of more than 129 residents per 100,000 – the highest rate in the state.
Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the state at more than 10.1 million residents, also has the highest raw number of fatalities from COVID-19, at 4,996. That represents California’s second-highest coronavirus mortality rate at 49 deaths per 100,000 residents.
Elsewhere in the central San Joaquin Valley, the deaths of 56 Kings County residents makes the mortality rate of 36.5 per 100,000 people, fourth highest in the state and just behind neighboring Tulare County.
Merced and Madera counties were ninth and 10th among California’s 58 counties. Merced County has 74 deaths among its 283,521 residents, for a rate of 26.1 per 100,000 population. Madera County’s 40 deaths and population of 158,147 creates a mortality rate of 25.3 cases per 100,000 residents.
Fresno County, with 191 deaths from its population of just over 1 million, had a mortality rate of 18.7 deaths per 100,000 residents, putting it 14th among California’s counties.
Since the global coronavirus pandemic reached the Valley in March, the number of deaths blamed on the virus has grown each month. July was the deadliest month thus far both in Fresno County and the Valley, with 208 deaths total and an average of 6.7 deaths per day.
With about one-third of August past, this month is on pace to surpass July’s death toll from COVID-19, with 109 lives lost since Aug. 1 and an average of 9.9 deaths each day this month.
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 5:46 PM.
