Mid Valley Times 3-11-21 E-edition

Thursday, March 11, 2021
Vol. 2, No. 36
Case decrease slows, more openings
Counties still purple for now, but case percentages down
By Jon Earnest
Mid Valley Times
The final steps for Fresno and Tulare counties to escape the dreaded purple tier for positive coronavirus cases are painful- ly dragging for residents, but the break- through is creeping closer.
On March 9, the latest figures released by the Fresno County Department of Pub- lic Health and Tulare County Health De- partment showed more positive news — but a setback or two along the way.
The good news is that active cases and the general positivity rate continues to de- cline. In Fresno County, the overall posi-
Man is
fatally
shot in
Dinuba
By Jon Earnest
Mid Valley Times
Dinuba police are inves- tigating the March 7 fatal shooting of a Dinuba man.
Shortly after 5 p.m.. of- ficers were dispatched to the 2000 block of East Olive Way, east of Dinuba High School, regarding a male subject injured by a gunshot wound. Arriving officers ini- tially treated the victim at the scene before emergency medical crews arrived, but the man succumbed to his injuries.
The Tulare County Coro- ner Office had not released the age or identity of the vic- timasofMarch9. Policepro- vided no other details about the shooting.
Dinuba Police's Investiga- tions Unit is treating the case as a homicide, which would be the city's first in 2021. The last homicide in Dinuba oc- curred last fall in the rural fringes of the city.
Anyone with information is urged to call the Dinuba Police Department at 591- 5911. Persons wishing to re- main anonymous can call the department's tip line at 591- TIP1 (8471).
tive case rate has dropped to 6.1 percent and new cases per 100,000 population de- clined to 12.6. The region must get below 8 percent with that figure and remain there to improve to the red tier (substantial) from purple (widespread).
But the health equity metric lowered to 6.8; a second straight week in the red cat- egory, And the general positivity rate fell to 5.3; a fourth straight week in red. That's the most optimistic news, along with a de- cline of 39 hospitalizations for the week.
However, the death toll continues to climb, reaching 1,505 by March 9. That's an increase of 54 for the week and 17 in a single day. Tulare County had 10 people die in the past week, raising the total to 776.
Hospitalizations in Tulare County have continued a steady decline; down 19for the week to 43. Intensive care unit space
See COVIDonpageA16
Jon Earnest / Mid Valley Times
Valentine Perez of Reedley worked on his biceps with 20-pound curls the after- noon of March 9 outside Fitness Quest Health Club in downtown Reedley. With Fresno County getting closer to exiting the purple tier, the city of Reedley on March 15 will remove the workout area that extends onto 10th Street.
50 cents
Coronavirus Update — Creeping Closer To The Red Tier
Burning off the excess
Piles of cut down trees that formerly grew nuts and stone fruit went up in flames during a series of control burns in a field just east of the intersec- tion of Road 88 and Av- enue 406 outside Dinuba the afternoon of March 9. The approach of a light late-winter rain system resulted in a permissive burn day in the county. The Fresno, Tulare and Kings County regions were expected to get some midweek thunder- storm activity, but not much rain was expected for the area.The Central Valley continues to lag far below nornal in rain and snow totals for 2021.
Jon Earnest / Mid Valley Times
Sanger youth programs set to reopen May 1
By Juanita Adame
Mid Valley Times
It was during the March 2 meeting of the Citizens Over- sight Committee in Sanger that two local youth centers an- nounced a return of students to their programs starting Satur- day, May 1.
“We spent a lot of time train- ing our staff,” said Diane Carbray, president/CEO for the Boys and Girls Club of Fresno County dur- ing the presentation. “It was ac- tually fourteen hours of learning COVID-19 protocols and covered the staff, the kids, how we’re go- ing to operate our programs.”
Carbray said during the on- set of the pandemic, the Sanger Community Center became a COVID-19 testing site making
it unsafe for their youth to con- tinue attending the club.
“Our clubs were suspended [in the early months of the pandemic] as people were coming and going so we didn’t feel it was safe for the kids or our staff,” she said.
Cabray said that although no one was present at their sites, staff made sure to keep in con- tact with local families, providing them any type of outreach and assistance.
“Several families were able to receive boxes of food for a week,” she said. “We just still kept talking to the families who were part of our program.”
Aside from the outreach dur- ing the pandemic, Carbray said their Boys and Girls Club staff
See SANGER YOUTH on page A6
SAM Academy / Photo Contributed
Sanger’s SAM Academy along with the Boys and Girls Club in Sanger both announced during the March 4 Citizens Oversight Committee meeting that they would bring students back start- ing Saturday, May 1.
Classifieds - A11
Directory - A10 Legals - A12-14 Sports - A9 Lifestyle - A7-8 Lights & Sirens - A3, A5 Obituaries - A2-3 Opinion - A4