COVID hospital burden continues to drop in Fresno, Valley counties. What the numbers show
Less than a month ago, hospitals in Fresno County and across the central San Joaquin Valley were struggling to keep up with the number of critically ill COVID-19 patients who needed to be in intensive-care units.
Now, the burden imposed on hospitals by the novel coronavirus is easing up, landing fewer patients in Valley hospitals than at any point since before Thanksgiving, when a vicious winter surge of new cases – combined with normal seasonal demands from other illnesses, trauma and other conditions – reduced the number of available ICU beds in the region to less than 20 on some days over the past couple of months.
In Fresno County, hospitals had 180 total people being treated as inpatients for confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, according to the California Department of Public Health. Of those, 59 were sick enough to require treatment in intensive-care units.
Both mark the lowest volume of patients in almost four months. Confirmed cases in hospitals numbered 190 on Nov. 20, a few days before Thanksgiving, before soaring to about 600 or more from just before Christmas to mid-January.
Demand for ICU beds in Fresno County hospitals over the same period climbed from 37 on Nov. 24 to almost 150 by the end of December before slowly settling down to the current levels.
Across the six-county region, Kings County reported 34 COVID-19 patients in hospitals on Tuesday, including four intensive-care patients. Madera County hospitals contained three ICU patients among its 17 total hospitalized patients.
Hospitals in Merced County were treating 29 coronavirus patients, including four in ICUs, while Tulare County’s 62 confirmed coronavirus patients included 10 in intensive care.
Mariposa County, which has no ICU beds, reported only one hospitalized patient on Tuesday.
Hospitals in Fresno County have a combined 149 licensed ICU beds, while the six-county region collectively has 312 beds.
Throughout the surge, however, hospitals scrambled to create additional ICU capacity. That was while also dealing with having doctors, nurses and other hospital staff who either contracted COVID or were exposed and were unavailable to work while they were in quarantine or isolation.
As recently as Feb. 4, the region had only 14 total beds available in ICUs to handle new critically ill patients. On that day, Fresno County reported having only two beds, while Madera and Merced counties had no ICU beds available for additional patients.
Coronavirus case updates
In almost a year since the first local case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Madera County on March 6, 2020, more than 211,000 people have tested positive for the virus, whether they experienced symptoms of its respiratory disease or not. Of those, 3,067 deaths have been officially attributed on death certificates to the coronavirus.
Across the central San Joaquin Valley, five of the six counties provided updates Wednesday of new cases and fatalities:
Fresno County: 108 new cases, 95,785 to date; no additional fatalities were reported as of late afternoon Tuesday, leaving the death toll at 1,451.
Kings County: No update was issued Wednesday because of a system update. On Tuesday, the county reported 22,091 cases to date, including 220 deaths. Of those, more than 7,200 cases and 17 deaths were among inmates at state prisons in Avenal and Corcoran.
Madera County: 20 new cases, 15,472 to date; no additional deaths, 214 to date.
Mariposa County: No new cases, 395 to date; no additional deaths, seven to date.
Merced County: 69 new cases, 29,264 to date; two additional deaths, 407 to date.
Tulare County: 28 new cases, 48,114 to date; two additional deaths, 768 to date.
