COVID-19 level is ‘high’ in Fresno after spring lull, CDC reports. See the latest figures

Tim Sheehan
·2 min read

COVID-19 is spreading at either low or medium rates in more than 85% of counties across the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

But Fresno County and neighboring counties in California’s central San Joaquin Valley are among those areas in which the virus is spreading at a high rate after a springtime lull.

Of more than 3,100 counties across 50 states, Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties are among 392 in which a combination of hospitalizations for coronavirus patients, the share of hospital beds those cases occupy, and the rates of new infections propel them into the highest community level for the virus under the CDC’s reckoning.

Fresno County has experienced week-over-week increases in new laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases in eight of the past nine weeks, climbing from fewer than 300 cases in the week ending April 23 to more than 2,900 last week. The same kind of upswing has occurred in the larger six-county region, where fewer than 1,100 new cases sprang up in the week ending April 23 compared to more than 5,560 last week.

Those figures from the counties and the California Department of Public Health don’t count people who test positive with at-home rapid antigen tests, which are not included in the official case statistics. Health officials believe that means the actual number of people coping with the virus is likely far higher.

The CDC’s guidance for residents in communities where COVID-19 levels are high include wearing masks in indoor public places, keeping up with recommended coronavirus vaccinations and boosters, getting a coronavirus test if you experience symptoms of COVID-19, and isolating or quarantining if exposed to or feeling symptoms to avoid infecting others.

The following charts show the continuing impacts of COVID-19 – cases, hospitalizations, deaths and vaccinations – in Fresno County and the Valley since the first local cases in the global pandemic were reported in March 2020.