It’s been more than a month since California’s cases of COVID-19, positivity and hospitalizations were all as low as they reached Thursday. However, deaths continued in large numbers.
Of all the tests in the past week in California, 7.5% returned positive for COVID-19, for an average of about 22,150 per day. Both figures were at their lowest point since the first week of December, according to information compiled by the news organization. Meanwhile, fewer Californians have been hospitalized with COVID-19 since the third week of December, representing the estimated two-week delay between cases and hospitalizations. Deaths followed the trend in hospitalizations by about two weeks.
On Thursday, California’s cumulative death toll rose to more than 39,000 with another 591 deaths reported in the state. More than 3,700 Californians have died in the past week, or an average of about 539 a day, more than nearly any other point of the pandemic.
But California’s other statistics improve dramatically.
With 16,251 COVID-positive patients admitted to the hospital, California cut its active hospitalizations by a quarter from their peak. The last time fewer Californians were admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 was on December 17th. About three weeks later, hospitalizations hit their peak, with just under 22,000 admitted to the hospital on January 6th. During the first wave of the state last summer, there were never 10,000 Californians admitted to the hospital at the same time.
California’s falls and positivity rate fell by even more.
Average daily falls in the state were about 45,000 on December 22, but climbed back up by January 10, when the positive tests after the holidays raised the daily average to more than 44,000. Since then, California has halved its average daily falls with a widespread reduction in the state. The per capita infection rate in the country’s largest state, which climbed to the top of the state-by-state rankings, dropped to about 56 daily cases per 100,000 inhabitants, now lower than 13 other states.
Similarly, the tests that were positive in California were 14.3% higher on January 7 and have been cut by almost half since then. The positive percentage of the state fell to 7.5% on Thursday during the first wave of the state last summer, even though it is still more than twice as much. This week was also the first time that California’s positivity rate has fallen below 8%, within the scope of the red reopening, since Gavin Newsom’s government day announced the local home order almost two months ago.
In the Bay Area, cases and deaths remain less accelerated than California as a whole. Of the 591 fatalities in the country on Thursday, 86 people came to the Bay Area region, including three counties with double-digit deaths: Santa Clara County, where the cumulative case was expected to exceed 100,000 this weekend, reported 36 new deaths , the fourth largest total in the state Thursday. This was followed by 18 in Contra Costa County, where the cumulative death rate increased to 525, and 11 in San Francisco, where the death toll exceeded 300.
Southern California on Thursday accounted for 431 of the nationwide deaths, or nearly three out of four, about the share of deaths it has been responsible for so far in the deadliest month of the California pandemic. Seven of the ten largest death tolls in the country came to Southern California on Thursday: 210 in Los Angeles, 69 in San Diego, 55 in Riverside, 30 in San Bernardino, 29 in Orange, 15 in Ventura and 14 in Imperial.
Each region has reduced its infection rate by about half from two weeks ago, the top two declines in the state. But in the Bay, there were about 32 cases per 100,000 residents in the past week, while the rate in Southern California was more than twice that: about 67.5 per 100,000.