California on Tuesday added just over 12,000 new Covid-19 cases, according to State Health Department data, the lowest number of daily cases in a state that has been aroused by a dramatic holiday boom since Thanksgiving.
“We have not seen a number like that for some time,” Mark Ghaly, secretary of health and human services, told a news conference. Just two weeks ago, the state reported an average daily count of about 40,000 new cases.
But while state health officials are seeing signs of optimism after the darkest months yet of the pandemic, they are renewing calls to avoid gatherings ahead of the Super Bowl and Moon New Year, warning it could lead to another deadly surge of the virus that claimed the lives of more than 41,000 Californians.
Look ahead: Hospitalizations are expected to drop by more than half over the next month, Ghaly said. In the past two weeks, there has been a 29% decrease in hospitalizations with more than 14,000 patients receiving treatment. About 3,800 of the people are in intensive care units.
These forecasts have led to the abandonment of local home-stay orders across the country. ICU capacity forecasts have been a driving force in these constraints, and now the entire state is expected to be well above the 15% threshold set by the state. In stark new projections, Southern California, which is the region hardest hit, is expected to have the most ICU capacity in the state next month.
But so far, more than 1,000 cases of Covid-19 variants have been detected in California – two different versions of the West Coast variant along with the British variant.
“Variants create another wildcard,” Ghaly said, adding that the new strains are worrying, being closely monitored as the state continues to actively sequence mutations and build capacity to do more.
“If you give Covid an inch, it’s going to take a mile,” he warned.