Fresno County reports nearly 1,300 new COVID-19 cases and 11 new deaths in the last 24 hours
The county's current 7-day average case rate is 20 times higher than it was in June.
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Fresno County has reported 11 new COVID-related deaths and nearly 1,300 new cases in the last 24 hours.
That's an alarming jump in the spread of a virus that, just a few months ago, appeared to be dying down in the region.
In June, the number of confirmed cases had dipped to a low of around 20 every day. Local leaders were optimistic, businesses began opening up, and many indoor mask mandates and other restrictions were lifted.
Now, the county once again appears to be sliding back to the worst period of the COVID-19 pandemic, when thousands of new cases were being reported every day. A total of 4,710 cases have been confirmed in Fresno County since last Wednesday.
The county has not had a spike in cases like this since this past December and January, when local hospitals saw a huge influx of patients infected during holiday gatherings, and local ICUs had 0% of their capacity remaining.
On December 14, 2020, the county reported a high of 1,102 new cases.
On January 8, 2021, at the height of another COVID spike, the county recorded 1,003 new cases.
Since then, case numbers in the county have been steadily decreasing, even going into the single digits on June 6, when only 9 new cases were reported.
But that's when the deadly and highly infectious Delta variant began to spread in the Central Valley and other parts of the country, and case rates began climbing again.
Fresno County's current 7-day average case rate is 20 times higher than it was in June, and health officials are warning that we may be seeing a second, deadlier version of the coronavirus pandemic.
Just over 46% of Fresno County's population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
NOTE: The video above is from a story on August 5, when health officials were already warning about the coming surge in cases.
