Alookat COVID-19 bythe numbers

State nearing a new low in cases amid increased distribution of vaccines

California recorded fewer cases of COVID-19 this past week than any other since the lows of last fall, according to data compiled by this news organization. And though the pace of decline has slowed, the state is within reach of its fewest weekly cases of the pandemic.

For the first time since before Halloween, California recorded an average of fewer than 4,000 cases per day over the past week, less than a tenth of its January peak and nearly 30% fewer than two weeks ago. At its current pace, California would hit a new all-time low in average daily cases, below 3,000, within the next two weeks.

Compared with earlier this winter, however, California’s improvement has leveled off. Throughout February, the state cut its average daily cases in half about every two weeks.

The trend of hospitalizations, which has tended to trail cases by about two weeks, has yet to show any signs of slowing its decline.

With 3,477 active hospitalizations, according to state data, fewer Californians are hospitalized with COVID-19 than any time since the second week of November. From a peak of nearly 22,000 in January, hospitalizations have fallen by 85%, including 41% in the past two weeks, matching the pace set last month.

Despite that, California still must cut its hospitalizations by 44% to lower the level past any point since the state began tracking that metric almost one year ago. To reach the comfortable plateaus of last fall, the state has an additonal 33% to go.

California’s death toll rose by another 1,676 over the past week, or an average of about 239 per day. Though that’s a decline of almost 60% from the height of the pandemic in January, California continues to record more fatalities than at any point prior to mid-December.

All this comes amid a backdrop of a growing number of vaccines being deployed across California and the nation. This week, President Joe Biden said all American adults should have access to the

vaccine by the end of May.

In California, about a quarter of adults have received at least one shot, according to the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, but that ranks behind 29 other states in percentage of its population at least partially inoculated.

Over the course of the pandemic, no state has recorded more cases of COVID-19 — nearly 3.6 million — or fatalities from the

virus — over 55,000 — than California, though on a percapita basis, it has outperformed many other states in managing the virus.

Larger proportions of people in 28 other states have either contracted the virus or been killed by it, according to data collected

by The New York Times. The per capita death rate in California is about 15% lower than the national average and nearly half that of the nation’s worst rate in New Jersey. Compared with North Dakota, where about 1 in every 7 residents has tested positive, the highest

rate in the nation, California has recorded 30% fewer infections per capita.

The Bay Area has fared substantially better than California as a whole.

Just five states have recorded fewer infections per capita than has the Bay Area, which has a larger population than any of them. The region has recorded cases at nearly onethird of the statewide rate per capita and accounted for just over one in every 10 deaths in California, despite being home to about 1 in every 5 California residents.

A man shot and killed at an apartment complex Wednesday night was part of a group attempting an armed home invasion robbery, according to police.

A male resident of an apartment unit shot the man, police said. Some other suspects — who police say were also likely part of the home invasion robbery attempt and possibly shot at the resident — are still at large, police said in a statement Thursday evening.

In a prior statement, Fremont police said they were called to the Mosaic Apartment Complex in the 39800 block of Fremont Boulevard about 10:25 p.m. Wednesday. Officers arrived and found a man lying in the parking lot with one gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.

Authorities did not identify the man who was killed, pending notification of his family.

Police surrounded the apartment complex after the shooting and also called in a SWAT team in the hours after the shooting. Police dogs and a drone also were used.

Investigators remained at the scene past sunrise Thursday morning, and police around 11:35 a.m. said they had reason to believe people were unlawfully in a home on Bidwell Drive. About two hours later, police announced they’d safely cleared the home and that no one had been inside.

Late Thursday afternoon, police said they also completed a search of an adjacent residence “out of precaution that suspects could still be in the area,” but police said that search “has ended yielding negative results.”

Police said the man who was killed was armed, and he and his associates “attempted a home invasion robbery at the apartment where the shooting occurred.”

“He and an unknown number of additional suspects attempted to force their way into the unit and an adult male resident discharged his own firearm at the group, killing one,” police said in their Thursday evening statement.

“We also believe that the group of home invasion suspects shot at the resident during the incident,” police said.

Police said they are actively working to “identify the outstanding home invasion robbery suspects.”

The killing is Fremont’s first homicide in 2021, and the city’s first since Oct. 24.