It’s been over a month since California’s COVID-19 cases, positivity rate, and hospital admissions were all as low as Thursday. However, the deaths continued in large numbers.
Of all the tests in California in the past week, 7.5% came back positive for COVID-19, for an average of about 22,150 per day, both numbers at their lowest point since the first week of December, according to the data collected through this . news organization. Meanwhile, since the third week of December, fewer Californians have been hospitalized with COVID-19 than ever before, which equates to the estimated two-week interval between cases and hospitalizations. Deaths traditionally follow the trend of hospital admissions for an additional two weeks or so.
On Thursday, the cumulative death toll in California rose to over 39,000 with an additional 591 deaths in the state. More than 3,700 Californians have died in the past week, or an average of about 539 a day, more than almost any other point of the pandemic.
But California’s other statistics are improving dramatically.
With 16,251 COVID-positive patients hospitalized, California has reduced active hospital admissions by a quarter from their peak. The last time fewer Californians were hospitalized with COVID-19 was December 17. About three weeks later, hospital admissions peaked, with just under 22,000 admissions at a time on January 6. During the first wave of the state last summer, 10,000 Californians were never hospitalized at one time.
The cases and the positivity rate in California have dropped even more.
The average number of daily cases in the state peaked at about 45,000 on December 22, but had rebounded close to that point on January 10, when the post-holiday positive tests raised the daily average to over 44,000. Since then, California has cut its average daily cases in half, with widespread reductions across the state. The per capita infection rate in the country’s largest state, which had climbed to the top of the state rankings, has fallen to about 56 daily cases per 100,000 residents, now lower than 13 other states.
Likewise, the percentage of tests that came back positive in California peaked at 14.3% on Jan. 7 and has nearly halved since then. At 7.5% on Thursday, the state’s positivity rate has fallen below its peak during last summer’s first wave, even though it is still more than twice as many on average. This week also marked the first time California’s positivity rate had fallen below 8%, within reach of the red reopening layer, since the day Gavin Newsom government announced the regional stay-at-home order nearly two months ago.
In the Bay Area, cases and fatalities are still occurring at a slower rate than in California as a whole. Of the 591 statewide fatalities on Thursday, 86 were in the Bay Area region, including three counties with double-digit death tolls: Santa Clara County, where the cumulative number of cases would exceed 100,000 this weekend, reported 36 new deaths. the fourth largest total in the state Thursday. It was followed by 18 in Contra Costa County, where the cumulative death toll rose to 525, and 11 in San Francisco, where the death toll exceeded 300.
Southern California was responsible for 431 of the statewide fatalities Thursday, or nearly three in four, roughly the proportion of deaths for which it was responsible so far during the deadliest month of the California pandemic, despite being slightly more than half of the state population. Seven of the county’s 10 largest death tolls came in 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 two major declines in the state. But in the Bay Area, there were about 32 daily cases per 100,000 residents for the past week, while in Southern California the rate was more than double: about 67.5 per 100,000.