Vaccine eligibility ramps up in Fresno region as new cases continue to slow
More than 175,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccines have been given to people in Fresno County, and that number is expected to grow steadily as eligibility for shots expands significantly this week.
The state Department of Public Health reported Monday that 175,792 shots have been administered in the county.
Across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Merced, Mariposa and Tulare counties in the central San Joaquin Valley, more than one-third of a million doses have been injected into arms with the goal of protecting people from COVID-19 and serious complications related to the disease.
Health care providers began giving shots Monday to workers in education, including teachers and staff at elementary, middle and high schools in Fresno County school districts through vaccination events set up specifically for those employers.
Additionally, clinics such as those at the Fresno Fairgrounds in southeast Fresno, Sierra Pacific Orthopedic Center in northeast Fresno and others began taking sign-ups for faculty and staff at local community colleges and universities including Fresno State and Fresno Pacific University, as well as trade or vocational schools and child-care and preschool facilities.
Eligibility in Fresno County is also now open for workers in agriculture and food industries – not just farm labor and workers in food processing plants, but also employees of restaurants, grocery stores and other segments of the food-supply chain.
Shots are also still being given in Fresno County to those who were already eligible but had not yet been vaccinated, including health care workers, emergency service employees and people ages 65 and older.
Progress in increasing the number of people getting vaccinated, however, depends on Valley counties continuing to receive allocations of two different medicines that have emergency-use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration – one produced by Pfizer-BioNTech, the other by Moderna. Both require a two-shot regimen, with a second dose administered 21 to 28 days after the first.
A third vaccine, a one-shot option produced by Johnson & Johnson, received emergency-use authorization from the FDA on Saturday. Johnson & Johnson said it expects to ship 20 million doses of its product in the U.S. by the end of March.
The prospect of having more doses available comes as the pace of new COVID-19 infections slows in the Fresno region and across California.
Over the past seven days, an average of 168 new coronavirus cases was reported each day in Fresno County, down from 458 new daily cases a month ago. Valleywide, the seven-day average for new cases stood at 570 per day, compared to more than 1,000 on Feb. 1.
Monday case updates
The Fresno County Department of Public Health on Monday reported 155 new coronavirus infections confirmed through testing. That follows weekend reports of 187 new cases on Saturday and 191 on Sunday.
Nearly a year after the first confirmed coronavirus cases were identified in Fresno and Madera counties, the cumulative number of Fresno County residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 stands at 95,548, including people who experienced no or few symptoms from the disease.
Of that total, the deaths of 1,451 people in Fresno County have been attributed by medical and health officials to the respiratory disease associated with the virus. Eight additional deaths were acknowledged Monday by the county health department.
Across the rest of the central San Joaquin Valley, the latest updates included:
Kings County: 22 new cases Monday, 22,082 to date; no additional deaths, 220 to date; 7,204 of the cases and 17 deaths have been among inmates at state prisons in Avenal and Corcoran.
Madera County: 73 new cases since Friday, 15,429 to date; five additional deaths, 214 to date.
Mariposa County: No new cases Monday, 395 to date; no additional deaths, seven to date.
Merced County: 176 new cases since Friday, 29,147 to date; three additional deaths, 400 to date.
Tulare County: 144 new cases since Friday, 48,013 to date; three additional deaths, 761 to date.
Valleywide, 210,614 people have tested positive for the virus since early March 2020. The region’s death toll from COVID-19 is 3,053.
