Fresno County coronavirus cases still climbing, though hospital ICU load eases slightly
Ten days ago, Fresno County hospitals reported they collectively had only five beds available in their intensive-care units to treat seriously ill patients, as COVID-19 added to an already burdened healthcare system.
ICU capacity remains strained in Fresno County and throughout the Valley, but the number of available beds has ticked up slightly since that critical shortage. The state Department of Public Health reported 13 available intensive-care beds in Fresno County on Sunday.
Fresno County’s increase in available ICU beds comes even as the number of coronavirus cases – both suspected and confirmed – reached their highest point yet since early March, when the first infections were reported in the region.
As of Sunday, 90 patients with confirmed COVID-19 plus eight suspected cases were being treated in the county’s intensive-care units.
In neighboring Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties, 29 ICU beds were available at area hospitals on Sunday, after dipping to as few as 18 beds just two days earlier.
Overall, between regular hospital beds and intensive-care units, the number of patients hospitalized for the coronavirus and the respiratory disease it causes are at — or near — their highest point of the past 10 months.
That includes 507 confirmed and suspected cases on Sunday in Fresno County, and 841 cases across the broader six-county region.
Around the Valley
The state Department of Public Health reported Monday that testing confirmed 358 new COVID-19 infections among Fresno County residents since a Sunday update, and more than 1,650 new infections since Friday.
Since the first confirmed cases of coronavirus surfaced on March 6, more than 44,100 people in Fresno County have tested positive for the virus. Of those, 542 have died.
Monday case updates from other central San Joaquin Valley counties include:
Fresno County: 358 new cases Monday, 44,114 to date; no additional deaths, 542 to date. Fresno County’s Department of Public Health only updates fatalities on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Kings County: 446 new cases since Friday, including 207 on Monday, 13,491 to date.
Madera County: 407 new cases since Friday, including 176 on Monday, 8,019 to date; no additional deaths, 107 to date.
Mariposa County: Seven new cases since Friday, including two on Monday, 180 to date; no additional deaths, four to date.
Merced County: No update as of 4 p.m. Monday.
Tulare County: 665 new cases since Friday, 25,707 to date; three additional deaths, 330 to date.
Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties have collectively reported a total of almost 106,000 confirmed coronavirus infections among their residents to date, including 1,290 who have died.
Regional stay-at-home order
Across the greater San Joaquin Valley health care region – a 12-county area spanning from San Joaquin County in the north to Kern County in the south – hospitals have a total of 667 licensed intensive-care beds for adults. As of Sunday, more than half of those beds were occupied by confirmed or suspected coronavirus patients, and hospitals reported having only 76 ICU beds left to care for seriously ill patients, whether with COVID-19 or some other serious condition.
ICU availability is the key measure that has the San Joaquin Valley under a sweeping regional stay-at-home order that started Dec. 6 and is in effect for at least three weeks, through Dec. 27, with the goal of reducing the spread of the virus and forestalling a potential overload of hospitals.
The order kicked in when the number of available ICU beds in the 12-county region dipped to less than 15% of capacity. As of Monday, the state reported that ICU availability was effectively down to 0%.
Intensive-care capacity is also being monitored in four other regions of the state, including the Southern California region, which fell under the regional stay-home orders on Dec. 6, the same date as the San Joaquin Valley, and the Greater Sacramento region, where the order took effect last Thursday. Monday’s ICU availability by region included:
San Joaquin Valley (Calaveras, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tulare and Tuolumne counties): 0.0% of capacity.
Southern California (Imperial, Inyo, Los Angeles, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties): 2.7% of capacity.
Greater Sacramento (Alpine, Amador, Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Nevaa, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, Sierra, Sugger, Yolo and Yuba counties): 14.8%.
Bay Area (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano and Sonoma counties): 17.8%.
Northern California (Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama and Trinity counties): 29.0%.
Statewide, about 6.5 of the total ICU capacity was estimated to be available for new patients on Monday. Almost 3,000 intensive-care patients were among the more than 14,000 hospitalized for inpatient care on Sunday.
California is experiencing a statewide surge of almost 34 new coronavirus infections per day for every 100,000 residents. As of Sunday, a total of 1,585,044 people have tested postive for the virus, and 21,046 have died., the state Department of Public Health reported.
