4 years ago, California declared a COVID emergency
What a long four years it has been.
It was March 4, 2020, when Gov. Gavin Newsom of California declared a state of emergency to respond to the novel coronavirus.
Fifty people in California had tested positive for the virus by then, and one death had been reported in the state. Schools and businesses remained open at first; most people had never heard of a stay-at-home order. That would not be announced for another two weeks.
Today, COVID hasn't gone away, and the highly contagious virus continues to circulate and occasionally surge. And the toll has been horrifying: Some 112,000 Californians have died of COVID. Nationwide, the virus has killed 1.18 million people. At the peak of the recent surge in January, 2,400 people were dying of the disease each week.
As many experts predicted back in the spring of 2020, COVID has become something that people have had to learn to live with. The virus still seems to crest in the summer and winter, but layers of protection from vaccines, previous infections and antiviral treatments have made hospitalization and death much less likely. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 98% of people ages 16 and older had COVID antibodies in the second half of 2023, compared with 21% in January 2021.
COVID killed roughly 75,000 people in the country last year, when it was the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. It was even worse in 2021, when the virus killed 450,000 people and was the third leading cause of death.
The virus remains dangerous, and an infection continues to bring the risk not just of acute symptoms but also of developing long COVID, with problems that persist for months or even years. But the sharp reduction in deaths from the virus prompted a loosening of pandemic restrictions last year, when California lifted its emergency order, and so did federal officials.
On Friday, the CDC announced a further loosening of COVID rules, saying that people who have tested positive for the virus no longer need to remain in isolation for five days if they are otherwise feeling well. The recommended isolation period was 10 days early in the pandemic, and five for the past two years.
The federal rule change follows a similar move by California officials in January. Scientists who supported the shift said that
COVID had transitioned away from being an acute public health crisis and had become more of a featured virus among an array of respiratory risks. They said the benefits of strict isolation no longer outweighed the cost of missed school, work and income for asymptomatic people.
“The emergency has ended,” said Dr. Melissa Sutton, medical director for respiratory viral pathogens at the Oregon Health Authority. “COVID-19 is endemic. We're in a different phase.”