California on Tuesday added just over 12,000 new Covid-19 cases, the lowest daily number in a state affected by a dramatic rise in Thanksgiving holidays, according to data from the state health department.
“We haven’t seen such a number in a while,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Mark Ghaly told a news conference. Just two weeks ago, the state reported an average daily number of about 40,000 new cases.
But as state health officials see signs of optimism after the darkest months of the pandemic so far, they renew calls to avoid rallies ahead of the Super Bowl and the Lunar New Year, warning that it could lead to further deadly growth of the virus that claimed the lives of more than 41,000 Californians.
Looking ahead: Hospitalizations are expected to drop by more than half over the next month, Ghaly said. In the last two weeks, there has been a 29% drop in hospitalizations, with over 14,000 patients receiving treatment. About 3,800 of these people are in intensive care units.
These projections have led to the elimination of regional state residence orders at the state level. UCI capacity projections have been a driving force in these restrictions, and now the whole state is expected to be well above the 15% threshold set by the state. In the strong new projections, Southern California, which has been the hardest hit region in the state, is expected to have the largest intensive care capacity in the state by this date next month.
But so far more than 1,000 cases of Covid-19 have been detected in California – two different versions of West Coast variants, along with the UK version.
“The variants create another wildcard,” Ghaly said, adding that the new strains are a cause for genuine concern, which are being closely monitored as the state continues to actively sequence mutations and develop the ability to do more.
“If you give Covid an inch, it will take a mile,” he warned.