California’s case curve is bending down

Cases of COVID-19 continued to come in smaller numbers in California on Wednesday, even as the state recorded the sixth highest number of deaths from the virus on any single day of the pandemic, according to data compiled by this news organization, although you wouldn’t know it by looking at the figures for Yolo County

The number of average daily cases over the past week hit its lowest point in over a month after county health departments combined to report 21,408 on Wednesday, half the total of the previous Wednesday. But with 596 fatalities around the state, it was also one of California’s deadliest days of the pandemic, raising its cumulative death toll over 35,000.

At about 33,600 per day over the past week, California is averaging its fewest cases since mid

December, prior to its preChristmas peak, and has cut its rate of new cases by nearly a quarter from just a week ago. The rate of positive tests has also fallen to its lowest point since the first week of December, with about 9.7% of all tests in the past week coming back positive; two weeks ago, California’s positivity rate was north of 14%.

Yolo County’s cases now total 10,609, which was 298 more than one day earlier, even though the positivity rate is 6.5%. There is only one ICU bed available among the county’s two major hospitals. Meanwhile, the number of deaths has increased to 138, which was seven more than a day earlier.

However, the local data may have been affected by the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday, which could have delayed the uploading of new numbers.

While much of California, remains under a stayat-home order with scant capacity in hospitals’ intensive-care units, hospitals are beginning to get some relief. On Tuesday, the active count of COVIDpositive patients dropped below 20,000 for the first time of the new year. In the past week, hospitalizations have fallen by about 7% and ICU patients by about 3%.

The recent improvements have been seen in all areas of the state, Dr. Mark Ghaly, Secretary of Health and Human Services, said on Tuesday.

However, COVID-19 has taken the lives of more than 3,300 Californians over the past week — an average of approximately 482 per day, or one every 3 minutes — two-thirds higher than the final week of December, which had been California’s deadliest month of the pandemic. The first 20 days of January, however, have already topped that and more. Wednesday’s total pushed the monthly death toll over 9,000, already 2,200 more than in December, with a third of the month to go.

Once again, Los Angeles County accounted for an outsized share of the statewide death toll on Wednesday, with 262, and was followed by four neighboring counties in Southern California: 65 in San Diego County, 31 each in Orange and Riverside counties, and 26 in Ventura County. Three in every four deaths around the state Wednesday occurred in Southern California, despite the region making up just over half the state’s population.

On Thursday, the country marked one year since its first detected case of COVID-19. In that time, more than 24 million Americans have contracted the virus and more than 400,000 have been killed by it.

The national death toll is still growing by the thousands every day. As President Joe Biden took office Wednesday, the U.S. recorded one of its deadliest days of the pandemic, with more than 4,300 American lives lost, according to data collected by the New York Times. While the case curve is bending down nationally, as it is in California, the country is still averaging nearly 200,000 cases and 3,000 deaths per day.

The Daily Democrat contributed to this report.