California overtakes New York for most COVID-19 deaths

On Tuesday, California surpassed New York in total deaths from COVID-19, claiming the ignominious title 11 months after the first American to die of coronavirus was discovered in the Golden State.

The death toll in California rose by another 513 on Tuesday, according to data compiled by this news organization, to 44,996 since the pandemic began almost a year ago. Although the devastating wave of New York last spring was not replicated anywhere else in the country, California, a state with twice the population of New York and 10 million more than any other state, recorded the period deadliest pandemic in the past two months, reporting deaths at three times the pace of New York last week.

However, even deaths, considered the last lag indicator of an outbreak, began to fall, now about a month after the first signs of cases and hospitalizations were stabilizing. The California curve followed a similar trajectory to that of the country, which also began to see a decrease in the number of new cases and deaths, as well as active hospitalizations.

In California, the average number of new cases continued to drop on Tuesday, after 10,913 cases were recorded across the state. At approximately 12,320 a day last week, California cut its cases almost in half from two weeks ago, a decline of 47%, but infections are still reaching a higher rate than any point before the winter wave. . The number of Californians hospitalized with COVID-19 has dropped 35% in the past two weeks to 11,198 on Monday, its lowest point in more than two months, but still well above any point before Thanksgiving.

But the death toll in California increased by more than 3,100 in the past week alone – an average of 445 a day – almost 20% less than two weeks ago, but it still tripled any seven-day period outside this winter. Two out of five Californians who died during the entire pandemic have died since the beginning of the 2021 calendar. Since the beginning of the new year, California has recorded more than 18,500 COVID-19 deaths, compared with just over 7,200 in New York, more than 12,000 in Texas and about 6,500 in Florida – the three states with the second highest cumulative number of deaths (and populations).

During the month of April, the deadliest month in the New York pandemic, it recorded nearly 21,300 victims, more than the nearly 15,000 lives lost in California last month, with about half the population.

On a per capita basis, California is below all three major states, including a pandemic death rate of less than half that of New York, second only to neighboring New Jersey in lost lives per capita.

As cases fell rapidly in California, so did their position on the national ranking of infection rates in states. With approximately 31.2 daily cases per 100,000 residents last week, California has moved from first place to 20th, according to the New York Times. However, only six other states have a higher proportion of their residents still being treated for the disease in hospitals, according to the COVID Screening Project; none has a higher overall count of active hospitalizations.

In the bay area, cases have dropped dramatically enough that some local counties are beginning to smell advanced levels of reopening.

There was no movement locally in the weekly update provided on Tuesday, but the new state data showed a series of counties approaching the possibility of moving to the red reopening level, which requires an adjusted case rate of 7 / 100K or less and a positivity rate of less than 8%.