What is state’s current virus outlook?

California is nearing a new low in cases of COVID-19 amid increased distribution of vaccines

California recorded fewer cases of COVID-19 this past week than any other since the lows of last fall, according to data compiled by The Mercury News. And while the pace of decline has slowed, the state is within reach of its fewest weekly cases of the pandemic.

For the first time since prior to Halloween, California recorded an average of fewer than 4,000 cases per day over the past week, less than a tenth of its January

peak and nearly 30% fewer than two weeks ago. At its current pace, California would hit a new all-time low in average daily cases, below 3,000, within the next two weeks.

Yolo County’s case rate has also continued to fall. An additional 19 cases were added Thursday, bringing the grand total to 12,897 positive COVID-19 cases since last March. Woodland added only two new cases Thursday and has seen 5,400 cases overall.

Compared to earlier on this winter, however, California’s improvement has leveled off. Throughout

February, the state cut its average daily cases in half about every two weeks.

The trend of hospitalizations, which has tended to trail cases by about two weeks, has yet to show any signs of slowing its decline.

With 3,477 active hospitalizations, according to state data, fewer Californians are hospitalized with COVID-19 than any time since the second week of November. From a peak of nearly 22,000 in January, hospitalizations have fallen by 85%, including 41% in the past two weeks, matching the pace set last month.

There are currently five Yolo County residents in hospital for COVID-19, a huge drop from the 50 hospitalized in late January.

Despite that, California

still must cut its hospitalizations by another 44% to lower the level past any point since the state began tracking that metric almost one year ago. To reach the comfortable plateaus of last fall, the state has another 33% to go.

California’s death toll rose by another 1,676 over the past week, or an average of approximately 239 per day. While that’s a decline of almost 60% from the height of the pandemic in January, California continues to record more fatalities than at any point prior to mid-December.

Yolo County has been faring better than the rest of the state. One additional death was added Thursday evening, bringing the grand total to 190.

All this comes amid a backdrop of a growing number of vaccines being deployed across California and the nation. This week, President Joe Biden said all American adults should have access to the vaccine by the end of May.

In California, about a quarter of adults have received at least one shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but that ranks behind 29 other states in percentage of its population at least partially inoculated. About 20% of Yolo County residents have received one vaccine dose.

Over the course of the pandemic, no state has recorded more cases of COVID-19 — nearly 3.6 million — or fatalities from the virus

—over 55,000 — than California, though on a percapita basis, it has outperformed many other states in managing the virus.

Larger proportions of people in 28 other states have either contracted the virus or been killed by it, according to data collected by the New York Times. The per-capita death rate in California is about 15% lower than the national average and nearly half that of the nation’s worst rate in New Jersey. Compared to North Dakota, where about one in every seven residents has tested positive, the highest rate in the nation, California has recorded 30% fewer infections per-capita.