A very welcome surge in the availability of intensive care in Bay Area hospitals and the lower transmission rates of coronavirus signify a hopeful outlook for the coming weeks, but there was no indication on Sunday when the region could emerge from the stay-at-home order that much stimulated from normal life.
State health officials said on Sunday that projections for four weeks in the Bay did not meet the criteria to lift the restrictions, and that an update was available Monday.
Hope increased when the Bay Area’s ICU availability, after lingering in the single digits for weeks, jumped to 23.4% in data released on Saturday, reflecting Friday’s status. This was an extraordinarily significant increase of 6.5% a day earlier, and it appears to have been the worst surge in the past. Sentiment was boosted by a statement sent to The Chronicle on Sunday by Ali Chronicle, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Health.
“We are seeing promising signs that California is slowly emerging from the most intense stage of this pandemic,” the statement said.
The rate of positive tests in California over the past 14 days was 9.8% – a decrease of 3.9 percentage points compared to the previous two weeks, the state data showed on Sunday. California reported 24,111 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, which is less than a 1% increase over the total Friday.
But in San Francisco, Sunday brought a pause in the good news that Mayor London Breed had in store on Friday, predicting that the city would soon be able to “start reopening under California guidelines” due to a decrease in transmission figures. A day after recording its few new coronavirus infections in two months (111), San Francisco saw an increase in Sunday, 283 new cases. New infections have dropped below 200 every day since Monday, but Sunday was more in line with the higher daily infections last week.
San Francisco also recorded one of its higher death rates of the month, 15, after a week of single-digit or zero-death days.
City officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest statistics, but one-day trends often proved misleading in the course of the pandemic.
Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeley, said he was “provisionally confident” that the current boom, which began in late November, had come to a head.
“This is what the data looks like there, and honestly, this is what the data looks like nationally,” except for a few other states, he said. Yet, he added, there is no clear end in sight. ‘What we’re seeing with the last two hikes here in the United States and in California is that we’re getting a boom and a crest, but we’re never going back to where we were before. It’s like going up stairs. ”
Under the California system, the local home order is supposed to be revoked when the availability of an ICU in a region is equal to or greater than 15%, if it appears four weeks in advance. The projections specifically look at the ICU capacity at the end of the four-week period.
The state Department of Public Health, for example, would analyze Monday’s data to make predictions for February 22nd. The forecasts are based on current local ICU capacity, community transfer rates and regional cases. The state analyzes the data twice a week.
Government officials reported Sunday that about 2.2 million vaccine shots have been administered nationwide out of the 4.1 million doses being distributed while recovering quickly after a slower initial implementation.
The vaccination photo nationwide has caused Xavier Becerra, the former California Attorney General, named by U.S. Secretary of Health Biden, to express frustration on Sunday over the long queues, which provide backlogs and confusion about where and when to get shots. .
“The plane is in a nose dive and we’re going to pull it up,” he told CNN. “This is not America. … This is not the way we treat those who we think are the most vulnerable who need the vaccine. ”
Becerra said he can not project when all Americans who want a chance will be able to get one. Biden undertook to distribute 100 million vaccines in the first 100 days in office.
Last week in Placer County, a person died hours after being vaccinated, after testing positive for the coronavirus in late December, the sheriff in Placer County said Saturday. The province’s department of public health did not administer the vaccine, officials said. Sheriff’s officials said Sunday they have no further information.
San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Lauren Hernandez and Jill Tucker contributed to this report.
Tatiana Sanchez is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @TatianaYSanchez