California nearly back to pre-omicron level of COVID-19 spread, tests and wastewater show
SACRAMENTO — Coronavirus numbers in California have fallen almost back to levels observed before omicron became the state’s dominant variant, the latest COVID-19 infections and hospitalization data show.
The daily case rate has cratered to 30 per 100,000 residents, according to a Tuesday update from the California Department of Public Health, one-tenth the peak of 300 per 100,000 on Jan. 10.
CDPH reported statewide test positivity at 3.6% Tuesday, down substantially from 22.6% at the omicron peak.
The latest case and positivity rates are each the state’s lowest since Dec. 20, state data show. Omicron overtook delta as the state’s dominant variant the week on Dec. 21, according to genome sequencing data, after growing exponentially following its first detection in late December.
California hospitals as of Monday were treating 5,655 COVID-positive patients including 1,098 in intensive care units. Both are the lowest marks of 2022, after more than 15,000 virus patients were hospitalized at January’s peak including over 2,600 in ICUs.
In mid-December before omicron took hold, the state had roughly 3,500 COVID-positive patients in hospitals with about 950 in intensive care.
Masks and the ‘SMARTER’ plan
California and many counties last Wednesday ended their mask requirement in indoor public places for the fully vaccinated, while Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties kept their mandates in effect. Masks remain mandatory throughout the state in several settings, including on public transit, in health care settings, at long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and at K-12 schools.
Individual businesses, venues and other private entities can also set their own mask rules.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and state health officials last week unveiled what they call the “SMARTER” plan for COVID-19 response. The acronym stands for: shots, masks, awareness, readiness, testing, education, and Rx, shorthand for medical prescriptions and other treatments.
The intent of SMARTER, which some health experts have labeled an “endemic” plan, is to shift California away from a constant emergency mindset and toward one that assumes the state will be living with the virus for the foreseeable future, Newsom and state health leaders said.
“We’re gliding into normal. We’re not announcing the normal,” Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly said Thursday.
California wastewater reflects decline in virus spread
In addition to improving case and hospital numbers, the amount of SARS-CoV-2 virus being detected at several wastewater treatment plants throughout California has returned to levels similar to those from early December, before the omicron variant arrived in earnest.
That’s according to the Sewer Coronavirus Alert Network, or SCAN, a project by a Stanford-based research team that has taken daily samples for more than a year at a dozen sites.
The sample sites include Sacramento and Davis in the capital region; Oceanside in Southern California; Merced and Modesto in the Central Valley; and four wastewater plants in the Bay Area.
Viral loads in wastewater were roughly the same over the past week as they were in the first half of December at the sites in Sacramento, Davis, Oceanside and the Bay Area, according to SCAN, and they appear to be settling into a plateau.
Loads are still higher than early December in Merced and Modesto, but they remain on a steady decline in those areas, the Stanford data show.
The SMARTER plan places high emphasis on wastewater surveillance.
“Building upon a robust, regionally based waste-water surveillance and genome sequencing network to have early and rapid insights into the changing nature of the virus and early identification of variants” will be a key element in being prepared for the next potential surge, the written plan says,
Wastewater surveillance can be used to detect broad, communitylevel trends in COVID-19 activity more quickly than diagnostic tests, though those tests are still required to identify cases at the individual level.