MADERA — After five days without a new confirmed case, Madera County Department of Public Health reported a 34th confirmed local case of coronavirus late Saturday.
The latest victim is identified by MCDPH as a man is his 20s thought to have contracted COVID-19 through community spread.
Of the eight current “active” cases, two victims remain hospitalized, a man in his 70s and a woman in her 60s. Their condition remains unknown.
MCDPH reported Saturday that 24 people around Madera County who have contracted the virus are now fully recovered. Two county residents — a man in his 60s and a woman in her 70s — have died after contracting COVID-19.
Mariposa County remains one of the few counties in the state still without a single confirmed COVID-19 case — although it remains unclear how many residents of the county have been tested to date.
Other central California counties have not been as fortunate. On Saturday, Tulare County reported a total of 397 confirmed cases and 17 deaths while Fresno County so far has tallied 315 confirmed cases and seven deaths.
As of 5 p.m. Saturday, there have been 30,718 confirmed COVID-19 cases across California, with the statewide death toll now at 1,147, with more than 100 Californians dying fro the virus in the past 24 hours. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Saturday that California needs to be doing nearly 100,000 more COVID-19 tests a day but that effort is being delayed by a shortage of nasal testing swabs.
Nationally, there have now been 732,197 confirmed cases, with the pandemic claiming the lives of 38,664, according to Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 tracker.
President Trump on Thursday unveiled a three-phase plan to re-open the economy but said the decision to lift stay-at-home orders in states would be up to individual governors. At the same press conference in Washington, COVID-19 Task Force leader Vice President Mike Pence said there are encouraging signs COVID-19’s spread is slowing.
“We are making progress. We are flattening the curve,” Pence said.
States with fewer cases, including Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota, could be the first to qualify for entering phase one of re-opening their economies, the president said Thursday afternoon.
In their most recent update, Madera County health officials said they are still “monitoring” 62 individuals for signs of the coronavirus and have now monitored a total of 570 county residents for COVID-19.
MCDPH Director Sara Bosse said late last week that she was “hopeful” the curve will continue to remain flat but added: “With the Easter holiday happening last weekend, we are making plans for the potential of a surge” in new cases.
For the latest MCDPH update, click here.
