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Coronavirus image via the Centers for Disease Control

published on July 9, 2020 - 2:46 PM
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Data is still being processed in the ongoing fight to curb Covid-19 in Fresno County, but recently gathered information may paint a picture of who may be the most vulnerable in the area.

In a virtual press meeting held Wednesday, the Fresno County Department of Health shared the progress on their continuing investigations into the demographics of the pandemic. During the meeting, Interim Public Health Officer Dr. Rais Vohra explained that the number of cases has gone from a “garden hose” to a fire hose,” but also clarified that this was also thanks in part to the FCDPH stepping up its testing. Since June 22, he stated that the Department has conducted more than 1,000 tests each day.

It’s the data from these tests and confirmed cases that was presented by Dr. Stephanie Koch-Kumar, a senior epidemiologist with FCDPH.

So far, of the 77 confirmed Covid-19 deaths in Fresno County with data processed, 45% of them have been over the age of 75. The current information also suggests that 63 of these cases involved co-morbidities. The most common of these by far was diabetes, which was found in more than 41% of fatal cases. Nearly 30% of confirmed deaths were also found to have hypertension.

Current data suggests that the Hispanic community in Fresno County has thus far made up the majority of fatal cases in the area. While making up about 55% of the population, they’ve also borne nearly 70% of Covid-19 deaths. A little over 81% of these recorded deaths were from patients with co-morbidities, and 60.3% were over the age of 64.

However, Koch-Kumar did add that many cases are still being processed through their system and data is still being collected as new cases are confirmed, meaning that it is subject to possible changes.

“And again I want to note — and this goes with the additional surveillance and any data that’s on our website — that all these numbers are preliminary and subject to change,” she said. “So we are recording those out before we have those complete investigations done.”

As an example of the potential change in the data as more information is processed, the numbers currently show Hispanics making up 48.2% of confirmed Covid cases, but the ethnicity of 32% of patients is still unknown.

As of Wednesday, there have been 72,81 total cases in Fresno County and 84 deaths. Additionally, 1,529 patients are confirmed to have recovered.


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