COVID-19 death toll hits grim milestone in California’s Central Valley. Here’s the latest
The death toll of the coronavirus pandemic in the central San Joaquin Valley climbed to more than 5,000 on Thursday, with new fatalities reported in Merced and Tulare counties.
Across the six-county region including Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties, 5,004 deaths have officially been attributed to COVID-19 on death certificates filed with counties. The actual number of lives lost to date is likely higher than that, as the daily reports from counties’ health departments lag behind the dates on which people died until death certificates are filed.
An adjustment to data reported by the Fresno County Department of Public Health and the California Department of Public Health on Thursday reflected a decrease of three deaths in Fresno County, putting the new total since March 2020 at 2,377 fatalities.
Despite that reduction, however, the addition Thursday of three deaths in Merced County and six in Tulare County pushed the Valley past the 5,000 landmark.
In Fresno County, just over 153,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported over the past 22 months. about 1.6% have resulted in the death of the patient.
Valleywide, about 1.5% of the nearly 337,000 people with confirmed coronavirus infections have succumbed to the respiratory disease or its complications.
From the start of the pandemic and the Valley’s first fatalities from COVID-19 in March 2020, it took about six months for the region to reach 1,000 deaths in mid-October 2020, at a pace of just under five fatalities reported each day. It took about four more months to climb to 2,000 deaths in the region in mid-January 2021.
- In the teeth of a winter surge, it took less than six weeks to lurch from 2,000 deaths in mid-January 2021 to 3,000 deaths by the end of February, when the region was experiencing an average of more than 26 reported fatalities each day.
- The next stair-step from 3,000 to 4,000 cumulative deaths by Oct. 1, 2021, took just over seven months, at a pace of 4.6 reported deaths each day.
- At a pace of about 10.3 deaths reported daily by Valley health officials, the latest jump from 4,000 at the start of October to 5,000 deaths in early January has taken just over three months.
Statewide, the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic was reported Thursday at 76,049 – an average of 44 deaths per day over the past week, according to the California Department of Public Health.
During the 7-day period between Dec. 6 and Dec. 12, people who were unvaccinated against COVID-19 were 16.6 times more likely to die from the virus than those who are vaccinated, state health officials reported.
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 2:20 PM with the headline "COVID-19 death toll hits grim milestone in California’s Central Valley. Here’s the latest."
