Newsom warns of COVID uptick
Cases no longer falling as winter months near
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom rolled up his sleeve Wednesday and received a coronavirus vaccine booster shot, a move he encouraged others to take as the state heads into the time of year that in 2020 ushered in the deadliest spike of COVID-19 cases.
Much has changed since then — 88 percent of those 18 and older in California have received at least one dose of a vaccine that didn’t exist last fall and millions have survived contracting the virus and have a level of natural immunity.
Still, millions are not vaccinated and new cases and hospitalizations have flattened after a steady twomonth decline. State models show a gradual increase in hospitalizations in the next month.
Newsom got his shot at a health clinic in Oakland from Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency. After a 15-minute break to ensure no immediate side effects, he issued a warning about the dangers of the upcoming holiday season.
“This is an incredibly important time because what tends to happen this time — it happened last year — is our attention wanes,” Newsom said. “We start focusing on other things. And as a consequence, we can let our guard down.”
The state seems to have reached what Ghaly called a plateau after its steady decline in cases and hospitalizations since the summer surge of the delta variant of the virus.
Models show coronavirus hospitalizations increasing slightly over the next month, from about 3,800 in hospitals now to about 4,460 by Thanksgiving.
The models forecast a gradual drop in intensive care patients but with a troubling upward curve starting in about two weeks.
Deaths are expected to continue their climb, adding nearly 3,000 to reach a pandemic total of 74,000 by Thanksgiving week.
The rate at which each infected person spreads the disease, known as the R-effective, remains below 1 statewide but had been creeping up since mid-september.
Anything below 1 means the number of infected people will decrease.
That pattern is mirrored in most regions of the state, but the rate in the Greater Sacramento area has edged back above 1, meaning the virus will start to spread.