Records continue to fall in California
Wednesday was the deadliest day yet of the COVID-19 pandemic in California and the U. S., with no signs of slowing down. Paired with a national death toll greater than September 11, 2001, and one statewide that equaled the devastating 2018 Camp Fire five times over, was also another record-breaking day of new cases and hospitalizations.
By the numbers, there hasn’t been a day that comes close to Wednesday in California: 428 new victims of the virus were added to the state’s death toll, which grew to nearly 21,900, and 51,773 new cases of COVID-19 were reported around the state, according to data compiled by this news organization — each shattering records that had already been broken in the past week. The total cases Wednesday were nearly 50% more than any day prior to this week and the day’s death toll nearly doubled the previous record.
For the first time of the pandemic, California is averaging more than 35,000 new cases and 200 fatalities per day over the past week, figures that dwarf those from the beginning of November, when the state was averaging just over 4,000 cases and about 45 deaths each day. Just in the past two weeks, California’s average daily cases have soared by 137% and its average daily death toll by even more: 205%.
As long as transmission continues to rise and more patients are admitted to hospitals, it’s likely the death toll will continue to follow, health officials and epidemiologists have said. About 12% of infections result in hospitalization within two to three weeks, and about 12% of those eventually end up in an intensive care unit, according to state health officials.
Hospitals around California have admitted a net of approximately 650 COVIDpositive patients each of the past two days — the largest single- day increases of the pandemic — with the active total rising to 14,939, as of Tuesday, according to the latest data from the state. Intensive care units are closer to capacity than any other point of the pandemic, with 3,188 patients currently intubated and fewer than 1,400 staffed and licensed beds available statewide.
If state health officials’ estimates are accurate, California’s 245,000 cases over the past week could result in more than 3,500 additional patients with cases of COVID-19 that demand intensive care in the coming weeks. Gov. Gavin Newsom warned on Tuesday that hospitals “in nearly every part of the state” will reach surge capacity “in the next few weeks,” according to the state’s projections.
On Wednesday, ICUS in the Bay Area fell below 15% capacity for the first time of the pandemic, triggering stay-at-home orders for the locales in the region that hadn’t already enacted the more restrictive orders.