Fresno County businesses left out of previous grants or loans have new hope. On Tuesday, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a small business grant program open to any Fresno County business with 10 or fewer full-time employees. The county set aside $5 million from its $82 million in...
Newsom Reopening Metrics Unreachable? Fresno County Says at Least One Is.
More than two dozen California counties have asked for permission to loosen their stay-at-home orders beyond what the state allows. But Fresno County is not one of them — yet. That changes today. County health officials have a call scheduled with state authorities in an attempt to change some of...
Free COVID-19 Testing Site Comes to Sanger
The Sanger Community Center is the newest free COVID-19 testing site in Fresno County, officials announced Wednesday. Sign-ups will begin next Monday and residents can register online at this link. For those without internet access, appointments can be made by calling 1 (888) 634-1123. The tests are by appointment only. “This...
Brand ‘Surprised’ by County’s Objection to Shelter-in-Place Extension
At his news conference Tuesday evening, Fresno Mayor Lee Brand expressed surprise that Fresno County officials objected to his extension of the city's shelter-in-place through May 31. "This was a complete surprise to me and everybody else. And I simply don't understand it," Brand said. "We have to work as...
Tulare County Points to Easter Socializing as a Reason for 101 New COVID Cases
The Tulare County Health Department reported the largest daily increase in COVID-19 cases Tuesday since the start of the outbreak. Tulare County’s confirmed cases rose by 101 since Monday, bringing the total to 858. Public Information officer Tammie Weyker-Adkins told GV Wire by email, "We're seeing the result of what occurred...
Virtual Academy Will Train ‘Disease Detectives’ by Tens of Thousands in CA
One of the keys to reopening our economy — and keeping it open — will rest in the hands of "disease detectives." In the medical community, they're called contact tracers. The name describes exactly how they'll crack the cases. It's estimated that Fresno County alone will need 300 of them....
Smartphone Tracking: Fresno County Residents Tired of Staying Home
Over six weeks ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the stay-at-home order. That was March 19th. By and large, people took the order seriously and stayed home, according to smartphone tracking data by Safegraph. However, it appears "cabin fever" has set in. More people, according to their smartphones, are starting to...
Fresno County: 500-700 Daily COVID Tests, but Number Is Likely Higher
The key to relaxing social distancing rules is testing. The question is, when will Fresno County hit the benchmark? Dr. Rais Vohra, interim Fresno County health officer, says, "We're doing between 500 to 700 hundred tests a day in the county." The good news? We may be doing a lot more...
COVID-19 Cases Surpass 600 in Tulare County. Fresno County Exceeds 500.
COVID-19 infections pushed past 600 confirmed cases in Tulare County in the past 24 hours, health officials said Wednesday. The updated case count was reported on the county health department's website and in a Facebook video. The 48 new cases represent the largest single-day jump in confirmed infections for the county....
Fresno County Data in Facebook's New COVID-19 Symptoms Interactive Map
No, Facebook doesn't track your health, the social media behemoth says. No, Facebook doesn't store your data, it says. But, Facebook now aggregates data from an opt-in survey they're running with researchers at Carnegie Mellon. Today, Facebook released the first maps of the COVID-19 symptoms people have reported county-by-county across the United...