There was another significant increase in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in California on Tuesday, and the same day, the state’s top health official warned that it was far from over.
Counties across the state reported 10,341 new cases, the fifth highest in a single day, and another 116 deaths from the virus, according to data compiled by this news organization. California’s total case count increased more than 400,000 and approached the New York record. The five days with the highest case numbers have come since July 6; Tuesday was the ninth day at the time with more than 100 deaths.
“It may take up to three, four, or even five weeks to feel the full impact of some of those changes,” Dr. Mark Ghaly, California Secretary of Health and Human Services, said Tuesday in a virtual press conference. The state could use its “dimming switch” to reverse reopens even further if troubling metrics persist, he said.
The state’s seven-day average of new infections has soared 146% in the past month to 9,000 per day, while the 93 deaths per day over the past week are 52% higher than a month ago. Although the test’s positivity rate has stabilized at around 7.5%, it’s a total of three percentage points higher than a month ago, and it’s closer to the state’s 8% threshold for its monitoring list than the World Health Organization recommendation of 5% before allowing life to resume normality.
The total number of COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized exceeded 7,000 for the first time in the crisis, occupying nearly 10% of California hospital beds, most of the state’s medical services to date. Since this time last month, the state’s positive COVID hospital patients have nearly doubled, from 3,574 on June 20 to 7,091 now, while the Bay Area has seen a 219% increase in that time. Hospitalizations here also peaked on Monday, with 740 patients currently receiving care at regional medical facilities, compared to 232 a month ago.
California hospitals admitted a network of 170 new patients on Monday, a 2.5% increase from the previous day. In gross figures, it was the eighth largest increase in hospitalizations in a single day since the start of the pandemic.
There were two fewer counties with little space in their intensive care units than the day before. A total of six had less than 20% of their ICU beds still available, including the state capital: Imperial (94.9% complete), Merced (93.3%), Yolo (88.2%), Madera (87.4%), Sacramento ( 84.5%) and Fresno (81.2%).
Sacramento and Fresno have also seen some of the largest increases in hospitalizations in the past month. In Sacramento, there were 39 patients hospitalized a month ago; now there are 212, a 444% increase. In Fresno, the number increased 300% to 283 patients.
But growth has not been contained anywhere in the state.
In Kern County, a staggering outbreak brought even more infections Tuesday. It has reported a record number of cases each of the past four days, with another 834 on Tuesday. Compare that to San Francisco, which has a slightly smaller population and has averaged around 100 cases per day for the past week.
Of Kern County’s 10,068 infections to date, 28% have come in the past four days. Hospitalizations there, already hovering around 100 a month ago, have increased 169% since then, to 277 on Monday.
In Santa Clara County, there were more than triple the number of patients hospitalized a month ago: 168 on Monday compared to 41 on June 20. In Alameda County, which has the highest number of hospitalized patients in the Bay area, that number increased 122%. in one month to 171. Contra Costa County is up 173% in one month but is still below 100 patients total.
Tuesday was also one of the worst days of the crisis in the Bay Area. There were 1,035 new cases, the fifth largest in the region in a single day, and 13 deaths from the virus, the third time in the past week there have been at least 10 deaths in the region.
California follows only New York in the cumulative number of cases and has the fourth highest number of deaths from the virus of any state, but several others have more severe outbreaks that are unleashed per capita. Overall, the US case count was 3.9 million on Tuesday, while the death toll had crossed 142,000.
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