It has been well over a month since the cases of COVID-19 in California, the rate of positivity and hospitalizations were as low as on Thursday. The deaths, however, continued in large numbers.
Of all tests in California last week, 7.5% tested positive for COVID-19, to an average of approximately 22,150 per day, both values at their lowest points since the first week of December, according to compiled data. by this news organization. Meanwhile, fewer Californians are hospitalized with COVID-19 than any point since the third week of December, representing the estimated two-week interval between cases and hospitalizations. Deaths have traditionally followed the hospitalization trend for another two weeks or more.
On Thursday, the cumulative death toll in California increased to more than 39,000, with another 591 deaths recorded across the state. More than 3,700 Californians died last week, or an average of about 539 a day, more than almost any other point in the pandemic.
But California’s other metrics are improving dramatically.
With 16,251 COVID-positive patients hospitalized, California reduced its active hospitalizations by a quarter of the peak. The last time there were fewer Californians hospitalized with COVID-19 was on December 17. About three weeks later, hospitalizations peaked, with just under 22,000 hospitalized at one time on January 6. During the state’s first wave last summer, there were never 10,000 Californians hospitalized at the same time.
California cases and positivity rates have dropped further.
The average daily cases in the state reached approximately 45,000 on December 22, but rose again near that point again on January 10, when positive post-holiday tests increased the daily average to more than 44,000. Since then, California has halved its daily average of cases, with widespread reductions across the state. The infection rate per capita in the country’s largest state, which has 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.
Likewise, the rate of positive tests in California reached 14.3% on January 7 and has since been reduced by almost half. At 7.5% on Thursday, the state’s rate of positivity fell below its peak during the state’s first wave last summer, although it is still on average more than twice as many cases. This week was also the first time that California’s positivity rate fell below 8%, within the red’s reopening range, since the day Governor Gavin Newsom announced the regional order to stay home, almost two months ago. .
In the Bay Area, cases and deaths continue to occur at a lower rate than California as a whole. Of the 591 deaths across the state on Thursday, 86 occurred in the Bay Area, including three counties with a double-digit death toll: Santa Clara County, where the cumulative case count is expected to exceed 100,000 this weekend. , reported 36 new deaths, the fourth highest total in the state Thursday. He was followed by 18 in Contra Costa County, where the cumulative death toll rose to 525, and 11 in San Francisco, where the death toll exceeded 300.
Southern California was responsible for 431 of the fatalities across the state on Thursday, or nearly three out of four, over the proportion of deaths it has been responsible for so far during California’s deadliest pandemic month, despite representing little more than half of the state’s population. Seven of the 10 biggest deaths in the county on Thursday occurred in Southern California: 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 cut its infection rate in half compared to two weeks ago, the two largest reductions in the state. But in the bay area, there were about 32 daily cases per 100,000 residents last week, while the rate in Southern California was more than double: about 67.5 per 100,000.