Coronavirus update: Fresno County passes 20,000 cases. Black-owned businesses struggle
Fresno County has topped 20,000 total cases of the coronavirus following a weekend of more than 1,000 new positive cases.
The state Department of Health on Monday said Fresno County has reported 20,603 cases since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is 1,446 more than were reported by the county on Friday.
Fresno County has seen 203 total deaths. This month is on pace to pass July — having already matched that month’s total — for the deadliest month for patients with the coronavirus — and August is just halfway over.
Tulare County reported 253 new cases on Monday morning, pushing the total to 12,358. There was no change to the 205 deaths reported in Friday.
The central San Joaquin Valley, from Merced to Kings County, has totaled 610 deaths from the coronavirus and 47,935 positive patients since the pandemic reached the region in March, according to state figures.
Coronavirus hits Black-owned businesses hard
Altogether, more than 40% of Black-owned businesses in the Fresno metro area have closed as a result of the pandemic. That number could grow exponentially in the coming weeks and months because of the prohibitive cost of reopening businesses successfully, according to Tara Lynn Gray, CEO of the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Black Americans, already victimized by generations of systemic racism, are suffering catastrophic economic losses. Nationally, 440,000 black businesses, representing 41% of the pre-pandemic level, crumbled between February and April 2020.
Fresno waits on strike team reports
Fresno County health officials are waiting for reports and direction from state strike teams to fight the coronavirus pandemic, three weeks after California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he was sending help.
The enforcement strike team focusing on Alcoholic Beverage Control and Cal/OSHA requirements regularly meets with Fresno County Public Health Department staff and collaborate on responding to complaints, according to Dave Pomaville, director of Fresno County Public Health.
The other “unified support” teams have yet to report back to Fresno County health officials to “identify some of the additional items that we may be able to work on,” Pomaville said Friday.
Call for farmworker relief
Facing an uphill battle due to a seasonal workforce shortage and COVID-19 outbreaks, some advocates and local leaders say state officials need to step up their efforts to help the agricultural industry’s employees.
In a letter recently sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom, more than 40 prominent Latino leaders in the Valley urged the state to provide financial relief and resources to farmworkers. The letter was signed by leaders from Fresno, Kings, Madera, Merced and Tulare counties including Fresno City Council President Miguel Arias, Tulare Mayor Jose Sigala, Merced County Supervisor Rodrigo Espinoza and former Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante.
Kings County Supervisor Richard Valle, who spearheaded the move to write the letter, said many of the region’s farmworkers who are getting sick and dying are in need of resources such as protective equipment, mobile testing sites at workplaces and translation services to mitigate the spread.
California sites waiting on rapid tests for nursing homes
The Trump administration in July pledged to send rapid coronavirus testing machines to nursing homes in hot spots around the country, but they have not yet arrived at some outbreak-challenged sites in the San Joaquin Valley.
Nursing homes in the region are eligible for the machines because the federal government considers the Central Valley to be a hot spot for the novel coronavirus that has killed about 160,000 Americans this year.
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 8:28 AM.
