More counties allowed to reopen as cases fall
California’s cases of COVID-19 have fallen 89% and hospitalizations by 78%
California’s metrics to measure COVID-19 continued to improve Tuesday, and in another sign of progress, an additional seven counties advanced out of the most restrictive reopening tier with a dozen others primed to do so in six days.
With 4,389 new cases reported Tuesday, California’s daily average over the past week fell below 5,000 to its lowest point since the first week of November, according to data compiled by this news organization. Following the surge last summer, cases fell below 5,000 on the second day of September and remained that low, plateauing just above 3,000 per day, for two months until the first signs of an impending winter wave began to appear at the start of November.
The surge that started in November has only now begun to fully recede after four months and tens of thousands of deaths.
At the start of November, about 17,000 Californians had perished from COVID-19. Now, California’s death toll has grown to 52,777, including another 278 reported on Tuesday. Although Tuesday’s tally was about equal to the week before, it was less than half of the highest daily totals reported at the height of the pandemic in January. California has now recorded more fatalities from COVID-19 through the first twoplus months of 2021 than it did in the first nine months of the pandemic in 2020.
Compared to their previous respective peaks, cases have fallen 89% and hospitalizations by 78%.
The number of Californians hospitalized with COVID-19 has fallen to 4,812, as of Monday, after nearly reaching 22,000 on a single day in January. For the first time since the second week of November, the state on Monday reported more than 2,000 available intensive-care beds as the tally of ICU patients diminished further to 1,390, according to the state.
After climbing above 14% in January, California’s positivity rate has fallen to 2.3%, lower than any other point of the pandemic. By contrast, Texas, which on Tuesday announced it was lifting all health orders, only recently brought its positivity rate below 14% from highs above 20%.
In California, there was a more modest reopening Tuesday.
Seven counties, including Santa Clara and San Francisco, advanced into the red reopening tier with adjusted case rates below 7 per 100,000 and positivity rates well below the 8% threshold, meaning restaurants, museums and other indoor activities can reopen at limited capacities.
Statewide, about 13% of Californians have now come out from under the purpletier restrictions. In the Bay Area, close to 4 million of the region’s some 8 million total residents — almost half — can now enjoy the limited pleasures of the red tier. Bay Area residents make up about three in every four Californians who have exited the purple tier.
In Southern California, every county but San Luis Obispo remains in the most restrictive tier. However, nearly every county in the state has reduced its case rate below 14 per 100,000, halfway to the requirement for the red reopening tier and the threshold to resume outdoor youth sports.
An additional 12 counties were on the cusp of exiting the purple tier, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday. Data released by the state showed Alameda and Santa Cruz counties as the next-closest to advancing in the Bay Area. Solano, Sonoma and Contra Costa counties have yet to meet the threshold for adjusted case rate.
Bay Area counties’ reopening metrics, as of Tuesday, March 2
• Alameda: 6.3, 2.4% (purple; must meet required thresholds for one more week)
• Contra Costa: 9.5, 3.5% (purple; must lower case rate and meet thresholds for two weeks)
• Marin: 5.5, 1.9% (red; must lower case rate below 4 to enter orange tier)
• Napa: 5.9, 2.3% (red; must lower case rate below 4 to enter orange tier)
• San Francisco: 3.5, 1.5% (red; must meet orange-tier threshold for two weeks)
• San Mateo: 4.0, 1.7% (red; must lower case rate below 4 to enter orange tier)
• Santa Clara: 5.8, 2.1% (red; must lower case rate below 4 to enter orange tier)
• Santa Cruz: 6.5, 2.9% (purple; must meet required thresholds for one more week)
• Solano: 7.7, 2.6% (purple; must lower case rate and meet thresholds for two weeks)
• Sonoma: 10.0, 3.5% (purple; must lower case rate and meet thresholds for two weeks)
Source: California Department of Public Health
The majority of the fatalities Tuesday continued to come in harder-hit parts of the state that have yet to receive the green light for looser restrictions.
In Southern California, Los Angeles, Riverside and Orange counties totaled the three largest deaths tolls Tuesday. In LA County, there were 87 more deaths to increase its cumulative total to 21,554, the most of any county in the nation. The death toll in Orange County rose by 31 to 3,952, second only to LA; and in Riverside County, it rose by 37 to 3,829, the third-most in the state.
Elsewhere in Southern California and the equally hard-hit San Joaquin Valley, four other counties posted double-digit death tolls Tuesday: 25 in Kern County to bring its total to 902; 14 in San Joaquin County to bring its total to 1,140; 14 in San Diego County to bring its total to 3,307, and 12 in San Bernardino County to raise its total to 2,952.
On a per-capita basis, only Imperial County has recorded more fatalities than Los Angeles County, while Riverside County ranks sixth and Orange County 13th among all 58 counties in California.
No Bay Area county comes in higher than Santa Clara County with a per-capita fatality rate lower than 23 other counties.
On Tuesday, Santa Clara County led the region again with 16 newly reported deaths, raising its cumulative death toll to 1,797. Elsewhere in the region, San Mateo County reported six deaths to bring its cumulative total to 521; Alameda County reported two to bring its total to 1,244, and Napa County’s cumulative death toll rose by one to 72.