In the latest grim sign of how deadly the most recent days of the COVID-19 pandemic were, California reported on Thursday that more than 500 lives were lost to the virus, but the state’s average daily death toll fell after the last count was completed .
The average daily fatalities from COVID-19 has been on the rise in California for over a month, but dropped slightly from pandemic high to about 369 a day in the past week on Thursday, after the county’s health departments collectively kill 508 in the state, according to data collected by this news organization. Following a post-Christmas pause, the state’s number of cases rose slightly again in the past week to about 39,700 a day, after another 40,196 were reported around the state on Thursday.
The virus has killed more than 1,000 Californians in the past 48 hours, the deadliest two-day period of the pandemic in the state. However, no day has surpassed New Year’s Eve, when 571 deaths were recorded, which in the calculation of the seven-day average was replaced by the 508 reported Thursday, bringing it down. Yet more than 2,500 Californians have lost their lives to the virus just since the new year began, a weekly total higher than that of several months earlier during the pandemic, the equivalent of a death every four minutes.
Nationally, the US broke its daily death record for a second consecutive day, registering more than 4,000 deaths in 24 hours for the first time of the pandemic, according to data collected by the New York Times. In the first week of the new year, more than 19,400 Americans were killed by the virus, according to data from the Times, the deadliest week of the pandemic in the country.
Although the number of national cases has risen past the previous peak before Christmas, California still has about 12% fewer cases on average than at its pre-holiday peak. Since Monday, however, the average daily infections have increased by about 10%. Even when we consider the massive population, only two states have recorded more infections per capita in the past week, and only three have a higher proportion of residents currently hospitalized with the virus.
Hospital admissions have slowed across California, but there are still more COVID-positive patients in the state than at any other point of the pandemic. On Wednesday, the active number grew to 21,939, according to the latest data from the state, including 4,712 intensive care patients.
In the Bay Area, ICU capacity fell to its lowest point in the pandemic, with only 3.5% of manned and licensed beds in the region, according to state data. While the bulk of the fatalities continued to come in Southern California, where hospitals have been operating at peak power for more than two weeks, there were also a significant number of deaths in the Bay Area on Wednesday.
The first state-ordered refrigerated trailers, intended for the temporary storage of dead bodies, arrived in Imperial County this week, with more bound for other hard-hit locations, including Sonoma County, according to the Office of Emergency Services. They have also been deployed in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Monterey counties.
Los Angeles County, which saw nearly half of the statewide fatalities in the past week, reported a further 217 Thursday, followed by three other Southern California locations: San Diego County, with 47; Riverside County, with 38; and Orange County, with 29.
In the Bay Area region, which includes Santa Cruz and Monterey counties under the state’s home-living order, the past three days brought three of the region’s four highest death tolls from the pandemic, including 75 on Thursday. In Santa Clara County, 16 fatalities on Thursday pushed the cumulative death toll to more than 800. In Alameda County there were also 16 deaths, bringing the cumulative total to 700. reported Thursday. Elsewhere in the region, Contra Costa also reported 16 new deaths to bring the total to 371; Sonoma County added nine to its count, which grew to 213; and the death toll in San Francisco rose by two to 205.
The statewide death toll on Wednesday exceeded 500 for just the third time of the pandemic, all in the past eight days.
In the Bay Area, deaths have increased 40% in the past two weeks, but the percentage per capita remains the lowest of any region in California. In contrast, Southern California reported significantly higher rates of infections and fatalities per capita for the past week than any other region in California. In the past week alone, about one in 140 Californians tested positive for COVID-19, compared to about one in 120 in Southern California and about one in 260 in the Bay Area.