Coronavirus updates: Variants, gatherings prompt concern as California COVID rates improve
California’s COVID-19 infection and hospitalization metrics continue to fall sharply from record-high peaks reached in January, but health officials continue to preach caution following the Super Bowl.
The state on Monday reported an average of just over 15,000 new cases per day over the past two weeks, with 5.8% of tests returning positive, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Both categories have decreased by more than half from three weeks earlier, when the case rate was about 39,500 per day with a 12.2% positivity rate.
Hospital and ICU patient totals for COVID-19, the latter of which had been slow to decline for a couple of weeks, are now both plummeting.
CDPH on Sunday reported 650 fewer patients than Saturday for one of the biggest daily decreases of the pandemic, followed by a drop of 310 on Monday to bring the total to 11,385 in hospital beds with the virus. The intensive care unit total fell by 131 patients on Sunday and 20 more on Monday for a total of 3,240.
Monday’s numbers marked the lowest hospitalized total since Dec. 8 and the lowest ICU total since Dec. 15.
Fatalities have fallen very slightly in recent days, and should begin to recover slowly from pre-surge levels before declining more quickly in a few weeks, mirroring the trend for ICU admissions.
CDPH reports an average of 502 virus deaths per day over the past two weeks, down from an all-time high of 542 six days earlier, but still astronomical in comparison to the 42 daily deaths averaged in mid-November before the surge took hold.
To date, more than 3.33 million Californians have tested positive for the coronavirus and at least 43,942 have died of COVID-19, CDPH said in a Sunday update.
Churches can open indoors, Supreme Court says
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled late Friday that California’s reopening framework requiring places of worship to stay closed for indoor services was unconstitutional but that the state may impose attendance limits.
The Newsom administration in response updated its reopening guidelines Saturday.
In the color-coded, tiered reopening system, places of worship may now allow attendance up to 25% of their usual maximum limits in counties in the tighter two tiers, which are purple and red; and at 50% in the looser orange and yellow tiers.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that California’s reopening rules violated First Amendment rights.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a concurring opinion: “The state’s present determination — that the maximum number of adherents who can safely worship in the most cavernous cathedral is zero — appears to reflect not expertise or discretion, but instead insufficient appreciation or consideration of the interests at stake.”
Justice Elena Kagan, in a dissent, wrote: “Justices of this court are not scientists. Nor do we know much about public health policy. Yet today the court displaces the judgments of experts about how to respond to a raging pandemic.”
Amid improvement, worries loom nationwide
State and local health leaders urge Californians — even those who have been vaccinated — to practice social distancing and mask-wearing protocols, and to avoid large gatherings.
They, along with health leaders across the U.S., have expressed worry that large Super Bowl viewing parties involving multiple households this past Sunday pose the potential threat of becoming superspreader events. There’s also concern that Lunar New Year this coming weekend will tempt in-person gatherings for a second consecutive weekend.
Simultaneously, experts warn that genetic variants of the coronavirus pose new challenges and dangers even as numbers improve nationwide.
One variant known as B.1.1.7, which was first identified in the United Kingdom, is highly contagious and one recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted it becoming the dominant variant in the U.S. by March.
Researchers at UC Davis along with city and Yolo County officials on Monday said they have confirmed the first known case of the B.1.1.7 variant in the Sacramento area. It had been located in the state previously, in Southern California.
Another variant, known as B.1.351 and first found in South Africa, has shown some resistance to vaccines currently in development.
California vaccine rollout speeding up, but still lagging
California health officials say the past three days have marked the three highest daily totals for vaccines administered in the state.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday’s updates totaled about 666,000 doses given, for an average of 220,000 per day, compared to daily totals that had hovered a little over 100,000 about a week earlier. Those figures include both first and second doses.
CDPH does not include a breakdown between first and second doses in its online data dashboard. But the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday reported that at least 3.65 million have received at least one dose in California, and more than 800,000 have had both doses.
The CDC dashboard also shows that California has administered 64% of the nearly 7 million doses it has been distributed. That percentage ranks 11th lowest among the 50 states plus D.C.
Half of the states have administered at least 72% of what they’ve been delivered. Among other heavily populated states, Texas has administered 74% of the shots it has been given, and Florida and New York state have each given 69%.
At one point in January, California had ranked 51st out of the 51 in the statistic, so the recent trends show improvement. But for many, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, the state’s pace still isn’t fast enough.
“We don’t want to be average,” Newsom said in a news conference last Wednesday in Oakland, where RingCentral Coliseum is being prepped to become a federally partnered vaccination center. “We want to do more, and better.”
NFL stadiums to be used as vaccine centers
With Sunday’s Super Bowl, the NFL season has ended, and league Commissioner Roger Goodell recently said all 32 NFL teams’ stadiums can be used as mass vaccination sites.
President Joe Biden in a CBS interview before the Super Bowl said the federal government “absolutely” will use as many of those stadiums as possible.
The 49ers on Friday in partnership with Santa Clara County announced that Levi’s Stadium will open early this week as California’s largest vaccination site yet, capable of handling 5,000 people a day at its outset with the ability to expand to around 15,000 a day once supply increases.
“Sports binds communities together and the 49ers helping to vaccinate our community shows true leadership and winning teamwork,” said Mike Wasserman, president of the County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors.
Vaccines will be administered by the County of Santa Clara Health System. The site is slated to open Tuesday.
Latest Sacramento-area numbers: Nearly 1,900 dead
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 close to 142,000 combined positive cases and at least 1,891 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 88,775 cases since the start of the pandemic, and at least 1,318 of those residents have died of COVID-19. The county added 1,071 cases and 16 deaths on Monday for the three-day reporting window including the weekend, for averages of about 357 cases and five deaths per day.
By date of death occurrence, December and January have been Sacramento County’s two deadliest months of the pandemic. Local health officials have confirmed 379 deaths for December and at least 253 in January. January’s total will continue to grow, as it can take weeks for death confirmations to be made official.
Local health officials also on Monday confirmed the first deaths for February: at least two residents died Feb. 1 and at least one on Feb. 2.
Prior to December, the county’s deadliest month of the pandemic was August, at 181 virus deaths.
The countywide total for hospitalized virus patients dropped from 292 in a Friday update to 237 by Monday, according to CDPH, the lowest total since Nov. 19.
The ICU total moved from 66 on Sunday to 68 by Monday, still close to half of its peak of 130 about three weeks earlier. CDPH reported 73 ICU beds available in Sacramento County as of Monday’s update, up two from Sunday.
Placer County health officials have confirmed a total of 18,784 infections and 206 deaths. Placer on Friday reported 46 new cases and no deaths, following 68 new cases and one fatality reported Thursday.
State data on Monday showed just 84 virus patients in Placer hospitals, down from 114 on Friday, and with the ICU total dropping from 23 to 21. However, the state said only eight ICU beds were available, down from 13 in Sunday’s update.
Yolo County has reported a total of 11,892 cases and 158 deaths. The county on Sunday reported 27 new cases and no deaths.
State data showed Yolo with 10 virus patients as of Monday’s update including six in ICUs, with three ICU beds now available. Ten COVID-19 patients in hospitals matches the lowest total for Yolo since Nov. 12.
El Dorado County has reported 8,647 positive test results and 86 deaths. The county reported 95 cases and one new death in Friday’s update, following 70 cases and two deaths reported Thursday.
El Dorado has reported a remarkable surge in virus deaths compared to the first several months of the health crisis: 82 county residents have died of COVID-19 between Nov. 25 and Feb. 1, compared to four from March through mid-November.
State health officials reported El Dorado’s patient total dropping from eight in Friday’s update to six by Sunday and Monday, with the ICU total for COVID-19 now zero. Ten ICU beds are available.
In Sutter County, at least 8,516 people have contracted the virus and 91 have died. The county reported 42 new cases Thursday followed by another 42 on Friday, with no new deaths added either day.
Yuba County, which shares a health office with Sutter, has reported 5,431 infections and 32 dead. Yuba added just one new case on Thursday, followed by seven in Friday’s update, with no fatalities reported either day..
The lone hospital serving the Yuba-Sutter bicounty region — Adventist-Rideout in Marysville — had 38 hospitalized virus patients as of Monday’s state data update, down by four from Sunday and its lowest total since late November. The ICU patient total dropped to 10, down from 11 most of last week, and the number of available ICU beds rose from one on Friday to five by Monday.
This story was originally published February 8, 2021 at 8:21 AM.
