FRESNO, CA (KMJ) – Fresno County is in short supply of blood.
During his Friday update, Fresno County Interim Health Director, Dr. Rais Vohra, called it a “mini crisis within the pandemic.”
Dr. Vohra spoke of the desperate need for blood donations for the Central California Blood Center, and asked that people make a trip to the blood center over the weekend to donate.
He said that hospitals needed the blood for surgery and trauma patients, and the plasma from recovered COVID1-9 patients was needed, as well.
Dr. Vohra said the Fresno County Health Dept. hopes to set up a mobile donation site at the Big Fresno Fair, and is working on the details with the Fair organizers.
Dr. Vohra said he is also creating a health office order to mandate coronavirus testing available through people’s primary care doctors.
The reasoning behind that idea is that patients who see their doctors during this flu season, complaining about respiratory problems, should also be checked for COVID-19.
On Monday, Fresno County moved into the Red tier, allowing for shopping centers, gyms and more businesses to reopen, including indoor dining and movie theaters.
Fresno County has seen the number of coronavirus cases rise in the past few days, but health officials said hospitalizations have not yet increased, and that could still change.
Dr. Vohra acknowledged that the number of infections could rise, soon, as more businesses opened to indoor patrons.
A new measure was announced by Califorina’s Governor on Wednesday, Sept. 30. to give state and county health officials a sense of the virus’s speed and spread.
Dr. Vora said that under Gov. Newsom’s “Health Equity Metric,” Fresno County must have low COVID-19 numbers in neighborhoods that are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
New numbers will be checked alongside two existing metrics – rates of new cases and shares of tests that come back positive.
The new metric will be included in the state’s next weekly tier update on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
COVID-19 statistics for Fresno County as of 10/2/2020 (Increases reflect changes to the reporting dashboard since 9/29):
- 28,418 cases (+292)
- 399 deaths (+9)
- 18,869 recovered (+441)
Info & resources: http://fcdph.org/covid19
Detailed data: http://fcdph.org/covid19data
Click to listen to the report by KMJ’s Liz Kern:
