Governor Gavin Newsom reported a record 12,807 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday. He said this total was “the highest in the nation.” The previous record was produced on July 7, 11,694.
California now has 413,576 confirmed cases of COVID-19. That exceeds 408,886 seen in New York State as of Wednesday.
Of course, California is the most populous state in the U.S., with roughly twice as many residents as New York State, so those totals should be taken in the context of the states’ total populations. But it is revealing given that New York was previously the epicenter of the virus in the nation and, at one point, in the world.
According to a Sacramento Bee calculation, that means that about 1 in 96 state residents has or has had the virus.
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California hospitalizations for COVID-19 increased by 79 on Wednesday to 7,170. That means the number of hospitalizations has more than doubled in the state in less than six weeks. The number of virus-related ICU patients in the state increased by 52 to 2,058 in total.
In Los Angeles, the state’s largest county, there were a record 2,207 COVID-related hospitalizations as of Wednesday. That’s just 25 patients below the all-time high of 2,232, which was recorded on Monday. The number of ICU beds there ranged from 120 to 160.
Newsom said 35 counties in the state, compared to 33, are now on the state’s watch list. That represents the vast majority of the state’s population.
The 7-day positivity rate for tests in California is 7.6 percent, roughly where it was last week.
The pandemic has resulted in 7,870 deaths in the state. That is 1.5 percent. The number of COVID-19 diagnostic test results in California totaled 6,664,419, an increase of 127,487 tests in the past 24 hours.
Despite the process’s crucial role in reducing infections, California has too many cases of COVID-19 for authorities to investigate and trace each new infection, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said Tuesday.
“At the level of transmission we are seeing across the state, even a very, very robust contact tracking team in every county will have a hard time coming up with each case,” Ghaly said. “No one has planned to create a program to contact and track the level of cases we are seeing here.”
This came immediately after Newsom relaxed some reopening guidelines on Monday.
The Governor said in his press conference on Monday that the state was adjusting some of the workplace closure guidelines it issued last week, specifically those related to beauty salons and hair salons and the “care services industry personal”. The governor said he had wanted to make the changes before, but “it turned out to be more challenging than it sounds.”
“The good news is,” Newsom said, “We now have new guidelines on the COVID-19.ca.gov website that clarify what we can and cannot do regarding haircuts and the activities we want to go through. ” in and out of the personal care services industry, “Newsom said.
On Wednesday, after the grim new COVID-19 numbers, Newsom announced a “bridge contract” for masks from a Chinese company that would bring millions of masks to the state. There have been questions about the deal with the mask company, BYD. Newsom said the state is looking to get big competitive from California-based manufacturers. Newsom said the state has had discussions with Honeywell to create a California-based mask facility.
