California COVID-19 deaths spike; rural areas and suburbs hit hard

LOS ANGELES — California’s second surge of the coronavirus has resulted in a near doubling of weekly deaths since the spring — with almost 1,000 fatalities in the last week alone — and radically shifted the geography of the outbreak, a Los Angeles Times data analysis found.

Suburban and agricultural areas that had been relatively spared California’s first surge of the virus are now being ravaged. And urban areas such as Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area are reporting fatality numbers just as high, if not higher, than in the spring.

The Central Valley has become home to one of the worst coronavirus hot spots in the country.

In eight southern Central Valley counties, weekly COVID-19 deaths have jumped from about 20 a week in April to nearly 200 a week in the past two weeks, a Times analysis found. San Joaquin Valley residents make up 20% of recent deaths statewide, even though they account for about 10% of the state’s population.

For the seven-day period that ended Monday, 969 deaths were reported across California, the largest weekly death toll since the pandemic began. During the springtime surge of the virus, the highest weekly death toll was during the week of April 21, when 553 deaths were reported.

In the southern part of the state, suburban regions are also experiencing a surge in deaths. San Bernardino County recorded 128 coronavirus fatalities in the sevenday period that ended Monday, almost quadruple the weekly death toll of 34 the week before. Riverside County’s weekly death toll of 83 last week was about double what it was in April.