“The good news is that we saw almost 4,000 hospitalizations a day in our hospitals because of Covid,” said California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly on Tuesday. “Now we are seeing days below 2,500 and getting lower, which is exactly what will keep our hospital conditions improving and our ICU capacity as high as possible.”
The cautiously optimistic briefing by the head of HHS today comes 24 hours after Governor Gavin Newsom suddenly put an end to the order to stay in the state’s regional home after just over a month and a half.
“We hope that Californians will not see yesterday’s announcement as a ‘let’s let our guard down’, but we will still keep our guard up,” said Ghaly. “We will do what we can to ensure that our rates do not increase further, that although our hospital delivery system looks better, it looks like it can manage what is to come.”
Related Story
Demand for low prices from Film & TV Productions, quick response in Covid tests attracts new participants
Tuesday’s virtual data-packed briefing was also punctuated by a pernicious anniversary: Today is exactly one year after the first two Covid-19 cases were reported in California. Since then, there have been 37,500 coronavirus deaths in the most populous state in America.
Anxious to know where things could be until February 21 if current trends continue and walking the political tightrope, Ghaly also praised Californians for increasing masking and other “difficult decisions” during the holiday to bend the curve. “We think this has dropped significantly to 25,000 hospital admissions, 5,000 ICU admissions … which not only protects our health care system, but translates into real lives saved in our state and, frankly, many of our family members who are vulnerable” , he said.
In his first media appearance about the pandemic in about 10 days, Newsom on Monday swore that the decision to remove the order to stay at home was based on science, reducing cases and hospitalizations and four-week ICU projections.
However, with Covid-19 deaths across the state still at almost record levels, Newsom had to guard against accusations that the reopening had different political considerations. In an attempt to reshape a vaccine distribution program that is growing, but stubbornly, the Democrat faces an increasing recall effort and an uproar from large and small businesses that have been devastated by the seemingly impulsive stances of Golden State’s pandemic policy.
As a kind of epilogue, Tuesday’s figures revealed a downward trend in support of Newsom’s decision. Most notably, there was a 33% drop in the positivity rate in 14 days between January 12 and today.
In addition, ICU hospitalizations have started to drop in the past two weeks, an overall reduction of 10.6% over January 12. Adding the newly appointed Secretary of Government Operations Agency, Yolanda Richardson, to the mix, Tuesday’s briefing sought to assure Californians that the Newsom administration has a viable vaccine plan to deliver vaccines to citizens, with a renewed emphasis on communities. traditionally needy, in a movement that mirrors the Biden government.
In the spirit of general hope for one of the hardest hit states in a nation hit to the brim by Covid-19, Dr. Ghaly revealed the metrics and math the state used to justify suspending the order to stay at home. “Today’s cases become hospital cases in about two to three weeks, the ICU cases about four weeks later,” he said. “So, if we really want to determine what the impact of our current case numbers is, our current transmission rates, our current testing positivity on where we will be in hospitals, we have to look at about four weeks.”
On the other hand, Ghaly admitted that he had “uncertainties” last week about whether requests to stay at home should be suspended based on the volatility of Covid’s numbers. He also gave up that the controversial closing of outdoor dinners again last month was based on the desire to “reduce the general movement and reduce the general mix” and not on any specific science – a sore point for many establishments, their owners and employees.
According to data released this afternoon, California had almost 3.2 million confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 17,028 new cases.
While the sprawling county of LA remains in critical condition, with cases and deaths continuing to show the impact of the holiday season and random security compliance, the region’s almost omnipotent Council of Supervisors voted to ease its own restrictions on Monday. According to the state, in the coming days, Southern California will allow the reintroduction of outdoor dinners and other private and commercial activities. Of course, as new case and death data is expected to be made available later today, being LA and CA, that may change again.
“The Super Bowl is coming and we saw what happens when people get together for a sporting event at each other’s homes,” observed Hilda Solis, chairman of the Los Angeles County Council, of the February 7 clash between Kansas City Chiefs and Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.