More than 3,300 inmates and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at Avenal, which is the highest total of any prison in California and possibly in the entire country . So far, the virus has killed eight of the prison’s incarcerated men. However, Avenal isn’t the only prison in the …
Read More »In Many Small Towns, Everyone Seems To Know Someone With COVID-19 – Virus Update For Nov. 13
After many weeks of holding steady, COVID-19 cases are once again on the rise, not just in other parts of the country, but also statewide and here in the Valley. Daily new cases are at the highest they’ve been since early September, case rates and positivity rates are increasing, and …
Read More »No Second Surge Yet, But Local Hospitals Prepare Just In Case – COVID-19 Update For Nov. 6
Nearly eight months in, the COVID-19 pandemic is still looking grim: Nationwide, the virus has killed more than 230,000 people, and this week, for the first time, more than 100,000 cases were reported in a single day. Twice. Although California has so far avoided the surge afflicting other parts of …
Read More »No, Halloween Isn’t Cancelled – COVID-19 Update For Oct. 30
It’s the end of October, which means we’re stuck with a pandemic holiday weekend. With health experts across the board discouraging trick-or-treating and gathering indoors, how can we celebrate safely? Rest assured that there are ways to minimize the risks of celebrating Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. We offer …
Read More »Some Businesses Reopen Indoors, Others Get Special Designations – COVID-19 Update For Oct. 16
As local COVID-19 case numbers continue to improve, five counties in the San Joaquin Valley have now advanced beyond the purple “widespread” designation of the state’s reopening plan known as the Blueprint for a Safer Economy . Fresno, Kern, Kings and Merced are now designated red for “substantial” virus spread, …
Read More »Whiplash As Fresno County Businesses Face Closures, Again – COVID-19 Update For Oct. 9
Last week, Fresno County businesses celebrated that the county had advanced into the red, less restrictive tier of the state’s COVID-19 reopening plan. Then, this past Tuesday, they learned that they may be forced to close back up again, as early as next week, if the county’s case rate doesn’t …
Read More »COVID-19 Stats Continue To Improve, But Death Data Tell A Darker Story – Virus Update For Oct. 2
When we seek to quantify the toll that COVID-19 is taking on our communities, we typically turn to official statistics like confirmed cases, hospitalization rates and, of course, death counts. But what if that final tally is an undercount, and the death toll is really much higher? An FM89 analysis …
Read More »Valley’s New Cases Drop, But Not Within Avenal State Prison – COVID-19 Update For Sept. 25
As the COVID-19 caseload continues to fall in San Joaquin Valley communities, the opposite trend has been happening inside Avenal State Prison: With more than 2,500 cumulative cases, the facility now has the dubious honor of being the state prison with the highest cumulative case count. More than 250 men …
Read More »Valley’s New Cases Drop, But Not Within Avenal State Prison – COVID-19 Update For Sept. 25
As the COVID-19 caseload continues to fall in San Joaquin Valley communities, the opposite trend has been happening inside Avenal State Prison: With more than 2,500 cumulative cases, the facility now has the dubious honor of being the state prison with the highest cumulative case count. More than 250 men …
Read More »Case Counts Improve, Yet State Guidelines ‘Penalize’ Kern County – COVID-19 Update For Sept. 18
Over the last few weeks, the local COVID-19 landscape has changed dramatically. In the San Joaquin Valley, average daily cases have dropped to a fraction of what they were in late July and early August, and hospitals are regaining the beds necessary for their normal, non-COVID volume of patients. Dozens …
Read More »Diabetes, Obesity, Hypertension & Severe COVID-19: Virus Update For Aug. 10-14
After announcing that a data snafu had resulted in an undercount of thousands of new COVID-19 cases, state health officials said this week the problem’s been resolved—at least at the state level. County health departments are left to clean up the data that feeds into their own county dashboards. Plus: …
Read More »Nursing Homes Remain COVID-19 Hotbeds – Virus Update For Aug. 17-21
California’s COVID-19 pandemic has evolved tremendously since it began in March, but one thing that hasn’t changed is that residents of skilled nursing facilities remain particularly at risk of severe infection and death. Although COVID-19 cases in skilled nursing facilities account for only 3 percent of the state’s overall caseload, …
Read More »State Data Gets Buggy; What Happens When Hospitals Reach Capacity? COVID-19 Update For Aug. 3-7
During a livestreamed address earlier this week, California Health & Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly dropped a bombshell: that the state infectious disease database known as CalREDIE, where labs report testing data and county public health departments extract local numbers, has been undercounting new cases . At the same …
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