Coronavirus updates: New infections at lowest rate since November in California, Sacramento
Coronavirus spread continues to show signs of slowing across the Sacramento region and California as a whole, where infection rates have dropped substantially from the peak of the winter surge.
Statewide test positivity has declined by half in less than a month, falling from a two-week average of 14% on Jan. 8 to 6.9% as of Thursday’s update from the California Department of Public Health. The latter matches California’s lowest positivity rate since Dec. 1.
New COVID-19 cases, which poured in at a pace of more than 40,000 per day over the first two weeks of 2021, averaged under 19,000 over the past two weeks. The state on Wednesday reported just 10,501 new cases, the fewest reported in a day since before Thanksgiving, followed by a little over 13,000 on Thursday.
The strain on hospitals is easing, too. CDPH on Thursday reported the total for confirmed COVID-19 cases in hospital beds fell below 13,500 for the first time since Dec. 12, and the intensive care unit total of 3,637 was the state’s lowest since Dec. 19. Concurrent patient totals had peaked above 21,000 hospitalized and 4,800 in ICUs in the first half of January.
The recent totals, while vast improvements, are still well above pre-surge levels. The state entered November with about 2,500 hospitalized virus patients, roughly 700 of whom were in intensive care.
Deaths also continue at a rapid clip — and may continue to do so for weeks — lagging several weeks behind drops in hospitalizations. It can take more than a week in some cases to confirm COVID-19 as the cause of a death, increasing the lag time even more.
To date, CDPH has reported 42,466 confirmed COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic. More than 7,400 of those have been reported in the past two weeks, for an average of 533 a day.
Improvement has been significant in the capital region.
In Sacramento County, local health officials on Wednesday reported a daily case rate of 21 new infections per 100,000 residents over the past week and a test positivity rate of 6.5%. Both were the lowest for the county since early November, and were roughly half as high as peaks reached in December and January.
In Sacramento’s most populous neighbor, Placer County, the weekly case rate has nosedived from 52 daily cases per 100,000 residents for the week ending Jan. 8 down to 18 per 100,000 for the week ending Jan. 24, the most recent available. And the positivity rate has cut in half, from 14% to 7%, in the past three weeks, the lowest it has been since mid-November.
Death toll over 1,850 in six-county Sacramento area
The six counties that make up the bulk of the 13-county Greater Sacramento region — Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties — have reported more than 140,000 combined positive cases and at least 1,857 virus deaths.
Following the statewide trend, the rate of new cases is slowing in all six of those counties; reports of deaths, which lag a few weeks behind infections, continue to pour in.
Sacramento County has confirmed 87,370 cases since the start of the pandemic, and at least 1,288 of those residents died of COVID-19. The county added 333 new cases and seven deaths in a Thursday update, following 242 cases and 10 fatalities Wednesday.
By date of death occurrence, December and January have been Sacramento County’s two deadliest months of the pandemic. Local health officials have confirmed 378 deaths for December and at least 229 for Jan. 1 through Jan. 29. January’s total will continue to grow, as it can take weeks for death confirmations to be made official.
Prior to December, the county’s deadliest month of the pandemic was August, at 181 virus deaths.
The hospitalized total for virus patients was 302 as of Thursday’s state data update, down from 305 on Wednesday and from 325 on Tuesday. The ICU total has fallen to 78, from a peak of 130 a little over two weeks ago. CDPH reported 73 ICU beds available in Sacramento County as of Thursday, up from 60 on Wednesday.
The virus death toll for the city of Sacramento has reached 703 residents, the county reported this week, and nearly 48,000 living within city limits have tested positive. That means roughly one in 10 Sacramento residents have tested positive, with one death for about every 710 residents.
Placer County health officials have confirmed a total of 18,738 infections and 206 deaths. Placer on Thursday reported 68 new cases and one fatality, following 32 cases and four deaths in Wednesday’s update.
State data Thursday showed 108 virus patients in Placer hospitals, same as Wednesday, but with the ICU total ticking up one from 24 to 25. The state says nine ICU beds remain available, down from 13 on Wednesday.
Yolo County has reported a total of 11,770 cases and 158 deaths, on Wednesday adding 59 cases and two deaths after reporting 50 cases and seven fatalities Tuesday. Health officials recently noted that death reporting can come in clusters — none for a few days, then several in one day — due to how the death confirmation process is performed.
State data showed Yolo with 12 virus patients Thursday, same as Wednesday and matching its lowest mark recorded since early November. Six patients were in ICUs, one fewer than Wednesday, with available ICU beds rebounding from one to three.
El Dorado County has reported 8,552 positive test results and 83 deaths. The county on Wednesday reported two new deaths along with reported 73 cases, following 36 cases and no new deaths Tuesday.
El Dorado has reported a remarkable surge in virus deaths: 79 residents have died of COVID-19 since late November, compared to four from March through mid-November.
State health officials on Thursday reported nine virus patients in El Dorado hospitals, the least since Thanksgiving, and only two in ICUs. Six ICU beds remain available, up from four one day earlier.
In Sutter County, at least 8,428 people have contracted the virus and 91 have died. After an internet issue prevented a Tuesday update, Sutter on Wednesday added 73 new cases and two new deaths covering two days of reporting.
Yuba County, which shares a health office with Sutter, has reported 5,423 infections and 32 dead. Yuba added no deaths and 34 cases total from Tuesday to Wednesday — 17 cases each day.
The lone hospital serving the Yuba-Sutter bicounty region — Adventist-Rideout in Marysville — had 48 hospitalized virus patients as of Thursday’s state data update, up from 45 on Wednesday and 39 on Tuesday. The ICU patient total held at 11 all three days, but the available ICU bed count fell from two to zero.
This story was originally published February 4, 2021 at 7:49 AM.
