Fresno County hits grim milestones for COVID cases, amid vaccine acceleration
Almost 300 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Fresno County since Friday, pushing the county to a total of more than 100,000 people who have been infected with the virus since March last year.
As the milestone loomed late last week, Dr. Rais Vohra described it as an unfortunate achievement for Fresno County.
Ninety-two cases reported on Saturday represented the point at which the county crossed the threshold with 100,027 cases. That was followed by the confirmation of 108 cases on Sunday and 95 more on Monday. To date, 100,230 people have had the virus at some point over the past 13 months, whether they experienced symptoms or not.
Also on Monday, the Fresno County Department of Public Health reported that the number of residents who have lost their lives to coronavirus disease now exceeds 1,600.
For more than a week, the county health department had not reported any new fatalities. Late Monday afternoon, the county updated its coronavirus data dashboard to show 36 additional fatalities – reflecting a change in the data to align with the state’s count.
As a result, the death toll from COVID-19 in Fresno County lurched upward from 1,597 to 1,633.
Across the neighboring counties of the central San Joaquin Valley, the total case count is inching closer to 220,000 cases as of Monday afternoon, including 22,708 cases in Kings County, 16,077 in Madera County, 416 in Mariposa County, 31,009 in Merced County and 49,272 in Tulare County.
Also in the past 13 months since the first cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the region, almost 3,400 people have died from the respiratory disease in the Valley, including the 1,633 victims in Fresno County.
The 100,000-case milestone comes as Fresno County and other Valley counties continue to accelerate their efforts to vaccinate their populations.
As of Sunday, the state health department reported that almost 198,000 people in Fresno County are now fully vaccinated – receiving both shots of the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or one shot of the single-dose Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That’s just over 19% of the county’s population
Percentages of fully-vaccinated residents in neighboring counties include:
- Kings County, 12.3%.
- Madera County, 17.5%.
- Mariposa County, 11.8%.
- Merced County, 14.3%.
- Tulare County, 17.6%.
Statewide, more than 22% of California residents are considered fully vaccinated.
This story was originally published April 12, 2021 at 4:01 PM.
