Coronavirus updates: 19% of Californians know someone who died of COVID-19, poll says
In about six months, the coronavirus pandemic has killed close to 13,500 Californians — about one in every 3,000 residents of the Golden State.
But according to a recent poll released by the California Health Care Foundation and survey firm Ipsis, 19% of Californians — nearly one-in-five — personally knew someone who died of COVID-19. For Black and Latino populations, who have died at disproportionate rates from the respiratory disease, those figures jump to 28% and 29%, respectively.
Those percentages may seem shocking or hard to believe, but they’re reflective of how vast and interwoven our networks of social connections have become: The CHCF poll suggests the rate of Californians who know someone who has died of the virus is about 350 times higher than the national rate of U.S. residents who’ve actually died. Nationwide, more than 188,000 have died of the virus, close to one in every 1,800 Americans.
Large social circles have proven to be a significant challenge in containing the spread of COVID-19, the highly contagious virus, and in tracking that spread via contact tracing.
For months, Gov. Gavin Newsom and health officers in the capital region have repeatedly blamed surges in infections on gatherings among groups of friends and extended family members. Those sorts of get-togethers technically remain restricted under the stay-at-home order that’s been in effect since March 19. But in practice, enforcing a ban on backyard barbecues and private birthday parties is effectively impossible.
“We cannot continue to do what we have done over the past few weeks,” Newsom said at a news conference, back in June. “The reality is people are mixing, and that is increasing the spread of this virus.”
Coronavirus infection numbers continue to trend lower in California, and hospitalizations have declined back to levels similar to those observed just prior to the surge that halted economic reopening for most of the summer.
Just over 3,400 patients with lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 were in hospital beds statewide, the California Department of Public Health reported Saturday, the lowest total for the state since June 20, the first day of summer. A little over 1,100 of them are in intensive care units, which is also the least dating back to mid-June.
State data show that an earlier spike in coronavirus hospitalizations began just about at the exact start of summer. The numbers climbed quickly to produce a peak of almost 7,200 in hospital beds and over 2,050 in ICUs by July 21.
Newsom, as well as state and local health officials, credit more widespread mask use and renewed business restrictions that went into place statewide in the first half of July as helping tamp down those numbers since the end of July. Last week, the governor unveiled a new color-coded tier system for economic reopening in California, with criteria that’ll make it a slower process this time around.
Sacramento County health leaders say the capital region is, once again, flattening the curve. But state Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly pleaded with the public earlier this week: With Labor Day weekend upon us, please avoid gathering with others outside of your own household, especially in an indoor setting, to help keep California’s COVID-19 rates trending in the right direction.
Why are COVID-19 deaths still climbing as other metrics decrease?
August proved to be the deadliest month of the pandemic for Sacramento and for California as a whole, easing past July’s fatality totals.
In Sacramento County, health officials now report that at least 152 COVID-19 deaths occurred last month, compared to just 85 dead of the virus throughout all of July. August accounts for 46% of the county’s six-month death toll of 327 confirmed as of Friday.
The state added 164 to its death toll in Thursday’s data update, another 163 on Friday and 153 more on Saturday for 13,643 all-time deaths, as the infection total increased to more than 727,000, with almost 5,000 new cases reported Saturday.
California’s daily rate of deaths has declined, more slowly than hospital and infection numbers, from a peak two-week average of 142 on Aug. 13 to 119 as of Friday.
The change in death rate can lag in the data behind changes in hospital and infection totals from a couple of weeks to more than a month due to the time it takes for a symptomatic case to worsen to the point of hospitalization and, in the most severe cases, death.
Another factor to consider is that as California’s hospitalization and ICU totals decrease, cases removed from those totals aren’t all recovered patients being released from the hospital; unfortunately, some portion of them are deaths, particularly among the ICU patients.
Sacramento area: More than 430 dead, all but one county in purple tier
The six-county Sacramento region — Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, Sutter and Yuba — reports an all-time total of more than 28,000 lab-positive cases over 430 confirmed deaths from the virus.
Sacramento County as of Friday morning reported 18,813 infections and 327 deaths from COVID-19, with 206 new daily cases added. State data show the continued, steady decline of hospitalized patients, with 177 in beds countywide including 52 in intensive care units. The county peaked in late July near 280 hospitalized and 90 in the ICU.
Sacramento is in the purple “widespread” tier in the state’s new reopening plan. To advance from purple to red, a county needs to bring its average new daily cases below seven per 100,000 residents, and its test rate positivity below 8%, for two straight weeks; it also needs to have stayed in its current tier for at least three straight weeks before it can be promoted. CDPH updates the color-coded tier list weekly on Tuesdays.
Sacramento County has a population of about 1.5 million people. The county reported Tuesday that for the week ending Aug. 29, a total of 1,191 residents tested positive, which is 170 per day, or about 11.3 daily new cases per 100,000 residents. The county says only 5.6% of tests returned positive that week.
Yolo County health officials have reported a total of 2,524 COVID-19 cases and 53 deaths, with 30 new cases and no new deaths reported Saturday. Friday saw an increase of 22 new cases and one fatality. Eight patients in the county were hospitalized as of Saturday, with seven of them in ICUs, according to state data. The county has two ICU beds still available.
Yolo remains in the purple tier. In the past two weeks, Yolo County’s daily new cases per 100,000 residents is 12.6, also well above the threshold of seven to move up a tier. Test positivity for Aug. 20 to Aug. 26 was 7.99%, the county says.
Placer County has reported a total of 3,154 COVID-19 cases and 35 deaths due to the virus, with 39 new cases reported Saturday and one death and 32 new cases added Friday. There are now 41 people hospitalized in the county and 11 of them are in the ICU with COVID-19.
Placer remains in the purple tier. The county’s public health dashboard says Placer County has averaged 5.4 daily new cases per 100,000 residents over the past week, with a test rate positivity of 4.1%. County officials say Placer is hoping state health officials will make exceptions to the three-week minimum, because it says it was placed into the purple tier based on data from Aug. 18 and that it has since met the criteria for more than two weeks. Next Tuesday will mark three weeks from Aug. 18.
El Dorado County has reported a total of 1,001 COVID-19 cases and two deaths due to the virus, adding 13 new cases Friday. There were no hospitalized patients infected with the virus in the county as of Friday.
El Dorado is in the red tier. The county dashboard says it recorded 52 new cases per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days, which is a daily average of 3.7. That meets new case criteria to enter the less-restrictive orange tier. El Dorado’s dashboard says its positivity rate in the past two weeks is 2%, also good enough to promote to the next tier. This suggests that if El Dorado County’s metrics remain stable, it could move up a tier two weeks from next Tuesday.
Sutter County has reported a total of 1,465 cases and 10 deaths. Four new cases were added Friday. Twelve people are currently being hospitalized, with two in the ICU.
In neighboring Yuba County, 994 people have been infected and six have died. Yuba added 20 new cases Thursday and 19 more Friday. Seven people in Yuba County are being hospitalized, with one in the ICU.
Yuba and Sutter counties share a health office, and both are in the purple tier. According to the state health department’s map, Sutter averaged 15.0 new cases per day per 100,000 residents for the week of Aug. 12-18, and Yuba averaged 15.9. Sutter County’s test rate positivity was 8.9% in that stretch, and Yuba’s was 11.2%. These figures suggest Yuba and Sutter counties have the region’s longest road ahead in escaping the dreaded purple tier.
Over 870,000 dead worldwide among 26 million infected
The global death toll for COVID-19 has exceeded 876,000, according to data maintained by Johns Hopkins University as of Saturday. More than 188,000 of those fatalities have come in the United States, which for several weeks has accounted for more than one-fifth of the worldwide death toll.
The United States also recently hit a milestone of 6 million total infections and has now increased to 6.24 million, also more than one-fifth the global total of 26.7 million, according to Johns Hopkins tracking data.
Brazil is next in both death toll and cases, with almost 4.1 million infections and 125,000 deaths. India is third in reported infections and deaths with just over 4 million and 69,000, respectively. Over 66,000 have died in Mexico, where the reported infection total is around 623,000. Russia has surpassed 1 million infections, but has reported only about 17,700 deaths.
After Mexico in terms of death toll are the United Kingdom at about 41,600, Italy at 35,500, France at over 30,700, Spain and Peru each near 29,500 each, Iran at a little over 22,000 and Colombia at over 20,800.
What is COVID-19? How is the coronavirus spread?
Coronavirus is spread through contact between people within 6 feet of each other, especially through coughing and sneezing that expels respiratory droplets that land in the mouths or noses of people nearby.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it’s possible to catch the disease COVID-19 by touching something that has the virus on it, and then touching your own face, “but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
Symptoms of the virus that causes COVID-19 include fever, cough and shortness of breath, which may occur two days to two weeks after exposure.
Most people develop only mild symptoms, but some people develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal. The disease is especially dangerous to the elderly and others with weaker immune systems.
This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 12:39 PM.
