Fresno County COVID-19 cases slow down, but officials warn public to keep guard up
Data continues to look positive in the central San Joaquin Valley as many counties have seen a slowdown in the number of coronavirus cases, but health officials have warned residents not to let their guard down.
Fresno County reported 47 new cases to reach 29,069 total of the coronavirus Thursday in numbers released by state health officials. The number of deaths has not changed from 406, because county officials update that count only on Tuesday and Fridays.
The county has reported 19,000 recovered patients and 9,385 active cases, officials reported.
But Fresno, like Riverside and El Dorado counties, has not maintained the necessary metrics for the current tier, and faces demotion as early as next week if numbers stay deficient for a second consecutive week. Fresno’s case rate rose to 7.2 cases per 100,000 residents, above the threshold of seven cases, officials said on Tuesday.
At least 16,361 Californians have died among 834,800 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to a state data update Thursday.
Hospitalizations
California’s hospitalization figures remain relatively level, with the state health department on Thursday reporting about 2,300 lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in hospital beds and about 650 in the ICU.
Each are less than a third of peak totals recorded during the summer. After almost two months of consistent and steady decline starting in late July, both of those hospitalization figures have been trending for about the past two weeks on more of a “plateau,” as Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday in a news briefing.
Another key metric, test positivity rate, also appears to be plateauing, but it’s doing so at the lowest rate recorded since state health officials began keeping track.
The California Department of Public Health said Thursday that 2.6% of diagnostic COVID-19 tests performed in the last two weeks have returned positive. When that metric drops, it suggests true spread of the virus may be decreasing significantly.
Around the Valley
Tulare County reported 84 new cases of COVID-19 and two new deaths related to the virus. That brings the totals there to 16,718 and 269, respectively.
Merced County added 19 cases to reach 9,130 since the pandemic began. A single new fatal case pushed that total to 150.
Madera County tallied 19 new cases, what is now a total of 4,720. No new deaths left the total at 70.
Kings County added 18 new cases, which brings the total to 7,956. The total number of deaths of 82 has not changed, according to health officials.
Mariposa County has reported 77 cases and two deaths.
The Sacramento Bee contributed to this report.
This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 4:40 PM.
