State reports secondhighest death total ever

Officials reported 363 COVID-19 deaths Tuesday

Local officials tallied 363 deaths Tuesday, a high only trailing the 428 deaths reported on Dec. 16.

California’s coronavirus surge has started to result in record deaths before Christmas as hospitals struggle with capacity and the staggering caseload shows few signs of abating.

Local officials tallied 363 deaths Tuesday, a high only trailing the 428 deaths reported on Dec. 16 and far outpacing the previous mid-July peak of 215 deaths. Nearly 36,000 new cases were meanwhile reported, holding the seven-day average for new cases steady at 45,388, according to data compiled by the Bay Area News Group — a more than 80% increase compared to just two weeks ago.

Hospitals have been overwhelmed for days by the rising need for care; as of Monday, there were 17,843 coronavirus patients hospitalized statewide, according to the California Department of Public Health. Just 1.4% of intensive- care unit beds are available, with 0% capacity across the state’s population epicenter in Southern California. The Bay Area has about 13.5% ICU capacity.

Coronavirus has exploded nationwide during the holiday season as people experience “pandemic fatigue,” prompting first skyrocketing infections and now deaths across California. Before December, the state’s worst bout with COVID-19 occurred in midJuly, when the all-time-high death record was just 215 and the sevenday case average never surpassed 10,000 daily infections.

The holiday surge has shattered those prior records, putting the state in its worst position yet since the pandemic began about nine months ago. California’s seven- day daily infection average is now more than three times its prior July peak, while the seven- day death average is nearly twice its prior early August peak. Its test positivity rate is about 13.3%, a sharp rise after hovering below 5% for most of the fall and outpacing the U. S.’s overall rate of about 11.1%, according to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine COVID-19 tracking project.

Los Angeles County remains the epicenter of the virus, making up about one-third of the state’s caseload and nearly 40% of the more than 23,000 total recorded deaths. Local officials, including L. A. County Health Services Director Dr. Christina Ghaly, are begging residents to stay home during the holidays — rather than using pre-travel COVID-19 testing — as hospitals hit capacity.

Los Angeles accounted for 85 of Tuesday’s more than 350 deaths, second only to Fresno, which reported 89 deaths.

In the 10- county Bay Area, Santa Clara County has recorded the most cases and deaths in total throughout the pandemic, followed by Alameda and Contra Costa. The region as a whole reported 39 deaths Tuesday, 21 of which were in Alameda, eight in Santa Clara, five in San Mateo, three in Sonoma and two in Napa, plus more than 4,000 new cases.

Although the region has

maintained more hospital capacity than Southern California over the past few weeks, the possibility for more infections and hospit a lizations looms

large thanks to Christmas. According to a Bay Area News Group analysis, case rates took off around the region in the weeks after Thanksgiving, which experts say can be traced in part back to family and friend gatherings.