California Reports Record Cases, Same Day Deaths

California had one of its darkest days until the time of the coronavirus crisis on Tuesday, reporting an almost record number of new cases and deaths.

The state added 11,100 positive tests to its COVID-19 case count and 138 to its death toll from the virus, while hospitalizations rose to new levels, according to data compiled by this news organization. Both cases and deaths would be daily records if it weren’t for the data inflated on July 6 due to delays over the holiday weekend. However, the seven-day averages for each number increased to 8,792 cases per day, up 54% from two weeks ago, and 95 deaths per day, a 50% increase in two weeks.

The state also saw its second-highest increase in a single day in hospitalized patients who confirmed they had the virus, adding 260 for a total of 6,745 on Monday, the most recent day for which data was available. The total increased 4% on Monday alone and has increased 33% since two weeks ago (by the way, the day with the single largest single-day increase: June 29, when there were 301 new patients and 5,077 total) .

In the Bay Area, there were no doubts about the numbers to start the week: The region reported a record number of new cases on Monday, then followed it up almost matching that number on Tuesday. Hospitalizations increased 7% on Monday the previous day and 53% more than two weeks ago; The 649 patients on Monday were the most part of any point in the pandemic. Even deaths, which have hitherto not affected the region as strongly as other parts of the state, have begun to rise here following their upward trend across the state that began just over a week ago.

Beginning in the third week of June, cases began to increase across the state and in the Bay. Now, about three weeks later, the number of daily deaths here is increasing.

After nine deaths on Monday, followed by 11 others on Tuesday, the first time the region reported consecutive days of at least nine deaths since late April, the seven-day average of deaths per day reached six, its highest level since middle of May . With another 1,123 cases on Tuesday, the region’s seven-day average of new cases rose to 883 per day, up 68% from two weeks ago and its highest level of the pandemic.

Still, even the 20 deaths in the past two days in the Bay Area, or 1.25 per day per 1 million residents, are much lower than in other parts of the state per capita; averaging over seven days, the region reports less than one death per 1 million each day.

In Los Angeles, which accounted for 72 of the 138 deaths statewide on Tuesday, an average of 4.5 people per 1 million have died per day in the past week. In the five counties south of Los Angeles: Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Imperial, the rate is 2.64 deaths per 1 million residents per day during the past week. The nine counties that make up the Central Valley, from Sacramento to Kern, have averaged 2.1 deaths per 1 million per day in the past week.

In comparison, Florida reported a record 132 deaths on Tuesday, or 6.6 per 1 million residents; Texas reported 87 deaths, or 3 per 1 million residents; and Arizona reported 97 deaths, 13 per 1 million residents.

No single Bay Area county had a higher case rate than the state as a whole, which has added about 22.2 cases per 100,000 residents per day in the past week, higher than all but 10 states.