Cases still surging, ICU capacity dropping
California is averaging 20,000 cases per day for the first time of the COVID-19 pandemic
With many parts of California facing newly tightened restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19, concerning signs of a surge refusing to slow pervaded on Sunday: a staggering number of new cases from a small sample of counties and ICU capacity in some regions reaching record lows.
For the third consecutive day, and the fifth time in the past week, county health departments reported a daily tally of more than 20,000 cases around the state, according to data compiled by this news organization. Only, on Sunday, the state reached that benchmark with data from a fraction of its counties — 15 of 58 — and over half coming in another record- setting day in Los Angeles County, where the tightest restrictions since the spring took effect Sunday night. For the first time of the pandemic, California is averaging more than 20,000 cases per day, and its positivity rate has climbed above 10%.
With approximately one in 10 tests in the state coming back positive in the past week,
California’s daily average of new cases has soared by 46% in that time, nearly back on two-week doubling pace from prior to Thanksgiving. Nearly 2,500 Californians have been newly hospitalized in the past week — an increase of 31% — with 33% more intubated in ICUs over that time. Both figures climbed to record highs on Saturday, with 9,740 COVID-positive patients in hospitals around the state, including 2,281 in ICUs.
A new stay-at-home order took effect Sunday night in the Southern California and San Joaquin Valley regions, where the capacity of intensive care units fell to 10.3% and 6.6%, respectively, according to state data. The new restrictions are also set to begin in parts of the Bay Area, despite 24.1% of regional ICU beds still open, above the 15% threshold.
In Santa Clara County, however, ICU capacity is teetering on that threshold. Its infection rate also climbed a new high after recording its third- highest daily total of the pandemic — all coming in the past week. The 805 new cases reported Sunday were equal to the tally in Alameda County, which broke its daily record, while San Francisco and Contra Costa County set new marks the day before.
More people are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Santa Clara County than anywhere else in the Bay Area, and it is one of six counties in the region with its most active hospitalizations of the pandemic.
San Francisco crossed that mark over the weekend after a 44% spike in patients in the past week.
“We’re not yet overwhelmed, but the trend is hugely worrisome,” Dr. Bob Wachter, the chair of medicine at UC San Francisco, wrote on Twitter.
The total number of patients currently receiving
care for COVID-19 in the Bay Area has reached 1,075, a 34% increase in the past week but still only a fraction of the statewide total. Although the region accounts for about 20% of California’s population, it is responsible for about 11% of the current hospitalizations and 12% of ICUs.
Los A ngeles County, which is home to about a quarter of California’s population, accounts for 30% of the patients hospitalized statewide, with the total nearly reaching 3,000 as of Saturday, 37% more than a week ago. With more than 10,000 new cases reported on Sunday alone, LA County was also responsible for half the statewide total and shattered its previous daily record, which it set the day before. The infection rate has soared by 72% in the past week to more than 77 daily cases for every 100,000 residents.
In California, the rate has risen to about 51.5 new cases per 100,000 residents per day, while in the Bay Area, it has reached approximately 30/100K. Nationwide, the rate is about 60/100K.
California also reclaimed the top spot in overall infections with more than 1.3 million cases, surpassing Texas by about 30,000 cases, according to the New York Times.
The death toll in California is nearing 20,000 after a recent surge in fatalities from the virus, though it remains behind New York and Texas, two states with significantly smaller populations. More than 100 deaths per day were reported around the state, on average over the past week, for the first time since September — an 83% increase from the week before.
Nationally, more than 282,000 Americans have perished from the disease and at least 14.3 million have been infected, according to the Times’ data, each coming at a sharper pace in the past week than any other point of the pandemic: an average of 196,000 infections and more than 2,200 fatalities per day.