A day after reaching the all-time high of 197 coronavirus-related deaths, the California pandemic accounted for another 194 new deaths on Thursday. So far, COVID-19 has claimed 8,909 lives across the state.
Deaths have risen dramatically from near-flat levels in June. As of Thursday, the 14-day daily average death toll attributed to the coronavirus was 112. Two weeks ago, that daily average was approximately 83.
The spike started in earnest last week, with a record 157 deaths on Thursday, surpassed by 159 deaths recorded last Friday.
Over the weekend and earlier in the week, those numbers decreased when state officials announced that the new reporting protocols had created a backlog of results. The recent numbers that shot up are undoubtedly at least in part due to that delay. But the fact that they have resumed on a march to new highs does not bode well.
The state’s daily count of new cases of coronavirus rose to 10,197 on Thursday, from 8,755 on Wednesday. That’s well above the 14-day average of 9,191 daily new cases, but below the all-time high of 12,807 new cases, set last week.
California now has 485,502 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
