Surge brings new case record

California’s seven-day death rate also reaches pandemic high

The explosive spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in California resulted in a record number of new cases in Monday’s reporting.

Health departments in the state counted 61,458 new cases, the first time since the coronavirus arrived that the 60,000 plateau has been reached in a single day. That lifted the seven- day average of new cases in California to 44,751, also a high for the pandemic according to figures compiled by this news organization.

The rising number is in keeping with a winter outbreak of the virus that has lifted the sevenday average by about 75% over the past month. On Nov. 22, state health departments recorded 5,895 new cases, and the seven- day average was 11,475.

Locally in Lake County, the Health Department posted 1,524 total cases 1,264 of which are said to have recovered while 238 are currently active. A dozen are currently hospitalized and there have been 22 overall deaths in the county.

The state’s seven- day average fatality rate also reached a new high in Monday’s reporting. There were 249 new deaths overall, two more than the seven- day average for the past week.

Of those deaths, 24 were recorded in Santa Clara County, the second time in the past week that county has recorded more than 20 deaths in a day. Overall, it has recorded 78 deaths over the past week, and 607 since the pandemic, the most among the Bay Area’s 10 counties.

Alameda County recorded one death, bringing its total to 588, and Solano County also added it’s 94th death in the pandemic.

The Bay Area’s 10 counties have recorded 2,368 deaths from COVID-19.

The outbreak continues as the state begins to roll out vaccines for the virus, and there were indications in some areas that the rate of growth seems to be slowing, even as others were spiking.

In Alameda County, the seven- day average of new cases grew to a pandemic-high of 941, even as the number of new cases fell to 1,081. The latter figure has fallen by 686 since Saturday’s high-water mark of 1,767, but the county has seen at least 1,000 new daily cases four times since Dec. 8.

The news was a bit better elsewhere. In Contra Costa County, the number of new cases fell to 404, down nearly 298 from the previous day’s reporting, and the seven- day average dropped to 662, down from a pandemic high 736 on Monday. Santa Clara County saw its number decrease by 311, from 1,429 to 1,118, and its seven- day average dipped to 1,177, down from a pandemic-high average of 1,285 a week ago

San Mateo Count y, which does not provide a report on Sunday, recorded 681 new cases, up from the figure of 390 on Saturday but down from the pandemic-high 860 new cases it recorded a week earlier. The county’s seven-day average also fell to 368, down from it’s high-water mark of 444 on Dec. 18.

In San Francisco, officials recorded 253 new cases, a significant fall from the 453 it recorded on Friday. The county’s sevenday average is 253, down by 50 from Sunday’s pandemic-high mark of 303.

The explosion of cases has left hospitals overwhelmed, and that trend showed no signs of changing. Through Sunday, there were 17,190 confirmed COVID-19 patients in California hospitals, the most since the pandemic began. There were also another 1,169 in hospitals who were suspected to have it, also a high-water mark for the crisis.