Virus deaths spike, but other curves start to bend

As Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday rescinded California’s stay-at-home order, COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state continued to plummet and its average daily cases remained near their lowest point in months.

California’s hospitals are shedding an average net of 300 patients per day since they reached a peak just over two weeks ago and most recently fell to 17,432 active hospitalizations on Sunday, a 20% decline in the past two weeks. The rate of positive tests has also declined drastically, to 8% of all tests in the past week, after that figure had reached 14% two weeks ago. At about 28,180 new cases per day over the past week, California is averaging its fewest infections since the second week of December, according to data compiled by this news organization.

However, California is still in the midst of its deadliest period of the pandemic.

With a monthly death toll exceeding 11,500 and still six days to go, January is on pace to be not just California’s deadliest month of the pandemic but do so two times over. On Monday, California’s cumulative death toll grew to 37,499 — more than any state but New York — with 434 newly reported fatalities. That pushed the seven-day total to 3,766, or an average of 538 per day, surpassing a period earlier this month as the state’s deadliest seven days of the pandemic.

Over the course of the pandemic, the Bay Area has been able to fend off the mass fatalities seen in the southern portion of the state. On Monday, though, Santa Clara County recorded the third-highest death toll in the state — 53, which includes delayed data from the weekend — its highest tally reported on any single day of the pandemic. Elsewhere in the region, there were an additional 16 deaths spread between Santa Cruz, Solano, Napa, Marin and Alameda counties.