California seeing biggest jump in virus cases in months
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s coronavirus cases are at their highest levels in months, a disquieting reality Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday was “obviously sobering” and that led San Francisco Bay Area health officials to urge people who travel outside the region to quarantine for two weeks upon return.
Newsom said some of the increase could be tied to Halloween celebrations while Barbara Ferrer, the health director for Los Angeles County, urged people who gathered during the weekend to celebrate Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential race to quarantine to avoid fueling the spread.
LA County is home to 10 million people, roughly one-quarter of California’s population, and was seeing 750 cases per day in September. Last week, four days saw case counts above 2,000.
“Recovery just doesn’t continue when you have thousands of new cases each day,” Ferrer said. “And many of these cases stem from people taking risks that are frankly not appropriate. It isn’t that hard to play by the rules, especially since these rules are what keep some people alive and allow our economy to improve.”
California hasn’t seen the even more dramatic surges other states are experiencing but new figures are troubling. The number of confirmed cases, the infection rate, hospitalizations and intensive care patients all have reached their highest level in months, Newsom warned.
The positivity rate — the number of people who test positive — climbed from 2.5% to 3.7% in about three weeks, hospitalizations are 29% over 14 days and “that trendline continues up,” he said. Meantime, California is nearing two grim milestones: 1 million cases and 18,000 deaths.
The state updates every Tuesday its 58 counties’ progress on a four- tier, color- coded system for reopening. The lower the cases and positivity rate, the fewer restrictions there are for businesses and certain activities in that county.
During the two months the system has been implemented most counties moved into less restrictive tiers. But this week’s update is expected to see counties go the other way and have to reimpose restrictions, said Newsom and the state’s top health official, Dr. Mark Ghaly.