COVID surging as state death toll passes 90K

California’s official death toll for COVID-19 has surpassed 90,000, as the state grapples with a fifth wave of infections that continues to escalate but has not translated to a sharp increase in fatalities, as of yet.

The California Department of Public on Friday reported 90,117 Californians have died of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic more than two years ago, adding 160 newly reported deaths since its previous update Tuesday.

The mark comes as the United States surpasses 1 million virus fatalities.

Although the tallies continue to balloon past once-unthinkable milestones, California’s seven-day average for COVID-19 deaths dropped to about 11 by the week ending April 21, the most recent with complete data available.

Aside from a five-day stretch last June, the latest rolling weekly death average is California’s lowest recorded since the very early days of the pandemic in March 2020. The death rate has steadily fallen since the peak of winter’s omicron wave, CDPH figures show.

The winter 2020 surge, which began before vaccines were made widely available, killed nearly 700 Californians a day at its peak in January 2021. The death rate peaked at nearly 260 per day during this past winter’s omicron variant surge and at about 140 a day during summer’s delta wave.

However, coronavirus transmission numbers are rising fast, nationwide and within California, where infection rates remain highest in the Bay Area.

The statewide case rate, which dropped as low as 5.2 per 100,000 residents in March, has spiked back up to 18.5 per 100,000 as of Friday’s state health update. Positivity bottomed out at 1.2% in late March but has now jumped to 4.4%.

Both metrics increased by 26% in the past week, and are at their highest point since mid-February.

San Francisco had the highest case rate among California counties at 40 per 100,000, with its positivity fourth-highest at 9.8%, CDPH reported Friday, trailing only a trio of sparsely populated counties.

Following San Francisco in terms of case rate were San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, each at 35 per 100,000; Santa Cruz at 34; Sonoma, Alameda and Marin at 29; Humboldt at 28; and Contra Costa at 25.

Most Sacramento-area counties are above California’s average for positivity rate: Yuba County was at 7.5%, Placer County at 7.3%, Sacramento County at 6.8% and El Dorado County at 6.2%. Sutter County matched the state at 4.4%.

Those counties, however, were all recorded below the state average in per-capita case rate as of Friday. That disparity reflects a decline in local testing volume, especially compared to the Bay Area.