City Manager Reports COVID-19 Cases Are Declining

Clovis City Manager Luke Serpa reported cases of COVID-19 are on a decline at the City Council Meeting on February 8, 2021. (Courtesy of amazingmikeal/Envato Elements)

City Manager Luke Serpa gave the City Council an update on the impact of COVID-19 in the City of Clovis.

Serpa reported that positive cases in the state are on a downtrend and that Fresno County’s positive cases are also going down. He mentioned the wave we saw during the holidays is significantly down and all numbers are improving.

COVID-19 related deaths in the county have also gone down.

However, Serpa also reported the City of Clovis has had 18 deaths this past week, the highest spike of deaths since the pandemic. He hopes that the deaths were not accurate and that the county has not yet adjusted their numbers from the previous week.

Hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients are down as well. Hospitals have resumed elective surgeries and procedures that were on hold due to COVID-19 hospitalizations.

As of last Friday, the county has 41.1 adjusted new cases per every 100,000 population and the positivity rate is down to 11.4 percent from 15 percent of last week.

There is a 13.2 percent health equity quartile positive rate. After months of zero percent ICU availability rate, the state is finally reporting 10.7 percent of ICU availability in our region.

Serpa mentioned the limiting factor for administering the vaccine has been the lack of supply. However, a new shipment of vaccines is planned to be available by next week.

Jorge Rodriguez has a passion for journalism and wants to bring the community information and great stories. After high school Jorge joined the U.S. Army and while in active duty he was deployed twice to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. While in college he worked for the Fresno City College Rampage and the Fresno State Collegian newspapers. He graduated from Fresno State in 2019 with a degree in print journalism.