A COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Fresno County Fairgrounds is now equipped to administer 1,500 shots per day, according to county officials during a press conference on Tuesday . The clinic, which began operating at reduced capacity on January 6, is open to healthcare workers in Phase 1A of the …
Read More »With Nearly 4,000 Cases, Fresno County Jail’s COVID-19 Tally Tops Nation’s Correctional Facilities
So many people have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Fresno County Jail that the total number of cases now exceeds the entire incarcerated population. According to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, nearly 4,000 inmates and staff members have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic started, a total …
Read More »COVID-19 Is Wreaking Havoc In State Hospitals, Too – Virus Update For Jan. 15
In the months since the pandemic began, COVID-19 has taken a tremendous toll on hospitals, where bedspace is at a minimum and staff are overworked , and prisons, where tight living quarters and mixed enforcement of safety precautions have left incarcerated people vulnerable to soaring infections . But the virus …
Read More »Journalists Investigate Why So Few Farmworkers With COVID-19 Isolate In Free Hotels
In an effort to assist farmworkers who test positive for COVID-19, California launched the Housing for the Harvest program. It provides free hotel rooms so farmworkers can self-isolate and not infect family members. But a recent investigation found that of the 800,000 farmworkers in California, only around 80 have utilized …
Read More »Family of Coalinga State Hospital Resident Says They Weren’t Told He Died—Or That He Had COVID-19
In late December, Clementine Sanders called her son at Coalinga State Hospital to make sure he had received her Christmas card. That’s when his bunkmates informed her that her son, 58-year-old Shannon Starr, had died three weeks earlier. “I was just totally shocked,” she says. “Nobody called me.” Since then, …
Read More »This Parlier Family Doesn’t Want You To Experience What They Did – Three Generations Got COVID-19
Brianna Cisneros is the youngest of four siblings. On this cool December evening, she’s sitting at a table in her backyard with her two sisters, her brother and her father. A dog barks nearby, there’s music playing from a neighbor’s house down the street. Signs of normalcy in a not …
Read More »Paramedics In Emergency Rooms, Long Hospital Transfers – How Ambulances Are Meeting COVID-19 Surge
With the latest COVID-19 surge, we know that hospitals are in crisis : Patients are being cared for in hallways and conference rooms, nurses and doctors are being forced to take care of larger patient loads than usual, and field hospitals are being opened to take care of those who …
Read More »First Vaccines Arrive As COVID-19 Ravages Valley – Virus Update For Dec. 18
The first batches of the COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the Valley this week , and for many of us, the milestone represents a light at the end of a very long and traumatic tunnel. Healthcare workers with high patient exposure will be the first to receive this initial delivery of …
Read More »With Fresno’s African American COVID-19 Coalition, Leaders Aim To Curb Virus And Build Trust
It’s a Tuesday afternoon in downtown Fresno, and a line of cars has wrapped around the block from the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission to Chukchansi Stadium. A petite karaoke singer belts out George Harrison on the sidewalk, while the drivers, masked and corralled into reserved parking spots, wait for Testing …
Read More »COVID-19 Vaccines Arrive in Madera And Fresno, Expected Soon In Other Valley Counties
As the first 327,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine begin arriving in California, most San Joaquin Valley hospitals expect their initial shipments within the next few days. Some hospitals, however, have already begun receiving them. In a video posted to Twitter, employees of Valley Children’s Hospital applauded next to a …
Read More »Weekend Protests Aim To Draw Attention To Explosive Spread Of COVID-19 In Valley’s Prisons
As COVID-19 infections continue to rise throughout the San Joaquin Valley, they’re also ravaging the Valley’s prisons. That’s why two advocacy groups have planned protests this weekend outside prisons in Kings, Fresno and Kern Counties . At Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, where more than 1,600 incarcerated men have …
Read More »Fresno Educator Remembers ‘Momma Miller,’ His Mother And West Fresno Advocate Who Died Of COVID-19
In early October, complications from diabetes forced Bessie Miller into the operating room. The former state employee and well-known advocate for West Fresno had needed round-the-clock oxygen for years, and because of poor blood circulation, calf injuries that wouldn’t heal eventually left her legs in need of amputation. The operation …
Read More »Health Officials Warn Of Dwindling ICU Beds, Overcrowded Hospitals: COVID-19 Update For Dec. 11
Five days into a regional stay-at-home order, COVID-19 infections in the San Joaquin Valley are soaring and hospitals are scrambling to make space on floors already crowded with flu patients. On Thursday of this week, the California Department of Public Health estimated that intensive care units in the San Joaquin …
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