It’s been well over a month since COVID-19 cases in California, the positivity rate and hospitalizations were as low as they were on Thursday. However, deaths continued in large numbers.
Of all California tests in the past week, 7.5% tested positive for COVID-19, averaging about 22,150 a day, both at the lowest points in the first week of December, according to data compiled by the organization. news. Meanwhile, fewer Californians are hospitalized with COVID-19 than at any point in the third week of December, representing the estimated two-week gap between cases and hospitalizations. Traditionally, deaths followed the trend of hospitalizations for another two weeks.
On Thursday, the total death toll in California rose to over 39,000, with another 591 deaths reported statewide. More than 3,700 Californians have died in the past week, or an average of about 539 a day, more than almost any other point in the pandemic.
But other California values are improving dramatically.
With 16,251 positive COVID patients hospitalized, California reduced its active hospitalizations by a quarter from the top. The last time few Californians were hospitalized with COVID-19 was on December 17. About three weeks later, hospitalizations peaked, with just under 22,000 hospitalized simultaneously on January 6th. During the state’s first wave last summer, there were never 10,000 Californians hospitalized at once.
The cases in California and the positivity rate have dropped even more.
The average daily case in the state exceeded about 45,000 on December 22, but climbed back close to that point until January 10, when positive post-holiday tests increased the daily average to over 44,000. Since then, California has halved its average daily cases, with large-scale reductions across the country. The infection rate per capita in the nation’s largest state, which had risen to the top of the state-by-state rankings, has dropped to about 56 daily cases per 100,000 residents, now lower than 13 other states.
Similarly, the rate of tests to return positively to California exceeded 14.3% on January 7 and has since been reduced by almost half. On Thursday, at 7.5%, the state’s positivity rate fell below its peak during the state’s first wave last summer, even though it is still averaging more than twice as many cases. This week was also the first time California’s positivity rate has fallen below 8%, on the verge of a redo reopening, since Governor Gavin Newsom announced the regional order to stay at home almost two years ago. months.
In the Gulf area, cases and deaths continue to be lower than in California as a whole. Of Thursday, of the 591 deaths nationwide, 86 came in the Bay Area region, including three double-digit counties: Santa Clara County, where the number of cumulative cases is expected to exceed 100,000 this weekend, they reported. 36 new deaths, the fourth in total in the state on Thursday. It was followed by 18 in Contra Costa County, where the total death toll rose to 525, and 11 in San Francisco, where the death toll exceeded 300.
Southern California on Thursday accounted for 431 statewide deaths, or nearly three in four, in terms of the proportion of deaths it has been responsible for so far in the deadliest month of the California pandemic, despite being just over half from the state population. Seven of the top ten county deaths came to Southern California on Thursday: 210 in Los Angeles, 69 in San Diego, 55 in Riverside, 30 in San Bernardino, 29 in Orange, 15 in Ventura and 14 in Imperial.
Each region has reduced its infection rate by about half compared to two weeks ago, the two main declines in the state. But in the Bay Area, there have been about 32 daily cases per 100,000 population in the last week, while the rate in Southern California has been more than twice as high as: about 67.5 per 100,000.