COVID ‘sub-variant’ now most prevalent in Fresno, Valley. It’s showing up in our wastewater
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The number of new COVID-19 cases popping up in Fresno County has fallen significantly in recent weeks.
But health officials say that almost all of those new cases are coming from a sub-variant of the omicron strain of coronavirus that has become dominant around the world.
Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim health officer, said Friday that the BA2 sub-variant of coronavirus now is believe to represent about 95% of new infections, not only in Fresno County but in California and the U.S.
That estimate is based not only on genomic sequencing of PCR tests for COVID-19, but increasing surveillance of wastewater by the city of Fresno, which represents about half of the county’s population, Vohra said.
“Wastewater gives us a good sense of how much COVID infection is happening in the community, because people shed the virus when they go to the restroom,” Vohra said in a video briefing with reporters. “That’s one method we use, and right now it all seems to be dominated by the BA2 variant.” That, he added, aligns with what’s happening throughout the state and nation.
“Right now it’s a game of watching and waiting to see how other countries and other regions behave with other variants,” Vohra said. “It’s still omicron, it’s a variant of omicron that acts similar to omicron.”
The omicron strain of COVID-19, which supplanted the delta variant last fall, has been described as significantly more contagious than delta.
Two coronavirus testing sites to close
Conventional testing has declined dramatically at state-sponsored testing sites across Fresno County, to a point where less than 25% of the total testing capacity is being utilized, said Joe Prado, assistant director of the Fresno County Department of Public Health. That is prompting the county and the state health department to close two of the state’s OptumServ mass testing sites starting next week: one in the city of Selma, and the other at West Hills College in Coalinga.
Four other OptumServ sites will continue to offer testing: at Fresno City College, in west Fresno, and in the cities of Reedley and Sanger.
As of Friday, state and county health officials have reported fewer than 300 new confirmed COVID-19 infections in Fresno County. That extends to five weeks a trend in which the number of new weekly cases has declined in the county. The county also reported five deaths attributed to the coronavirus this week, also marking a five-week trend of fewer fatalities from the respiratory disease.
