Coronavirus updates: California deaths finally decline, weeks after surge’s peak
The numbers are trending in the right direction in California’s battle with the coronavirus.
State health officials reported 8,251 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday and 8,390 on Wednesday, the two smallest daily totals since early November. The two-week test positivity rate fell under 6% for the first time since Thanksgiving, now at 5.5%.
The total number of patients hospitalized with confirmed cases of the virus has fallen below half of the winter peak, down from nearly 22,000 in early January to 10,771 as of Wednesday’s update from the California Department of Public Health.
The total in intensive care units has dropped from nearly 4,900 to just over 3,000.
The death rate for COVID-19 in California, as a rolling two-week average, on Tuesday dropped below 500 a day for the first time since Jan. 23 and fell to 484 on Wednesday.
Fatalities appear to finally be on a decline, but it’s a slow drop. The latest pace is down from a peak of 542 early last week, but it’s still more than 11 times higher than the rate of 42 a day in mid-November, before the surge took hold.
And the mass vaccination campaign, though still proceeding more slowly than health officials are happy with, officially surpassed the milestone of 5 million doses administered. The total reached about 5.09 million with Wednesday’s update, and the state has been reporting six-digit totals almost daily.
CDPH does not break down first doses vs. second doses, but according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 81% of California’s shots administered have been first doses. This means roughly 4 million have gotten at least one dose — one in 10 Californians — and about 1 million have had two doses and are therefore fully vaccinated.
The CDC on Tuesday released its weekly allocations for states, which show California will receive a combined total of about 622,000 first doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines next week, an increase by more than 28,000 from this week. California’s federally allocated total has grown by about 5% two weeks in a row.
To date, California has reported more than 3.36 million lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 and at least 44,995 have died of the disease, according to CDPH.
Data maintained by the Bay Area News Group, the New York Times and other news outlets showed California’s cumulative death toll on Tuesday surpassing that of New York state, which had its worst surge of deaths much earlier in spring 2020. Both states have now recorded close to 45,000 deaths from COVID-19.
California has about twice as many residents as New York, though, and the Golden State continues to have fewer deaths than New York, Texas or Florida on a per-capita basis.
Troubling variant found for first time in California
A genetic variant of COVID-19 known as B.1.351 has been identified for the first time in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced during a Wednesday news conference.
A Stanford lab confirmed B.1.351 in two Bay Area cases, one of them in Alameda County and the other in Santa Clara County.
The variant was first discovered in South Africa in October and confirmed in the U.S. for the first time in late January.
Scientists are continuing to study B.1.351, but some early clinical trial data for AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine and Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine candidate suggested lower efficacy against the variant. As a result, the AstraZeneca rollout was paused in South Africa.
$60 million from feds will help Sacramento County response
Sacramento County is getting $60 million in funding from the federal government, which will become available March 1, that local officials say will help on multiple fronts in the COVID-19 response.
The funds could help Sacramento County ramp up vaccination when the federal government begins shipping more doses, and will also help with testing and contract tracing efforts that will need to continue for the foreseeable future.
“It should provide us the capacity to administer significantly more vaccines and meet the needs of the community,” said Jim Hunt, the county Department of Health Services’ interim director.
Latest Sacramento-area numbers: Death toll moves toward 2,000
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 143,000 combined positive cases and at least 1,952 virus deaths.
Sacramento County has confirmed 89,363 cases since the start of the pandemic, and at least 1,352 of those residents died of COVID-19. The county reported 324 new cases Tuesday and 264 on Wednesday, and added 17 deaths each day.
By date of death occurrence, December and January were Sacramento County’s two deadliest months of the pandemic. Local health officials have confirmed 381 deaths for December and at least 279 in January. One death was removed Wednesday from December’s total as a data correction. January’s total will continue to grow, as it can take weeks for death confirmations to become official.
Local health officials have also started confirming deaths for February. At least 10 residents died of the virus in the first five days of the month.
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 last Friday’s update to 237 by Monday, but rebounded to 250 by Wednesday, according to CDPH. The county reported 73 patients in ICUs, up five from Monday, with 79 beds still available.
Placer County health officials have confirmed a total of 18,973 infections and 216 deaths. Placer on Tuesday reported 63 new cases and two deaths, after adding 189 new cases and eight new fatalities for an update covering Monday and the weekend.
Placer in a detailed monthly report released last Friday said at least 36 residents died of COVID-19 in January, though that total remains preliminary, following 80 virus deaths in December. The county reports 24 deaths in November, making the past three months the three deadliest of the 11-month pandemic.
State data Wednesday showed 82 virus patients in Placer hospitals, down from 86 on Tuesday and from 114 last Friday. The ICU total has dropped to 16, from 23 last Friday. Nine ICU beds remain available in the county.
Yolo County has reported a total of 12,060 cases and 170 deaths. The county reported 47 new cases and increased the death toll by 12 in an update Tuesday.
Yolo officials recently noted that deaths are confirmed in groups, meaning there may be no deaths noted for several days and then many confirmed all at once. The county had not reported any deaths Saturday through Monday.
State data showed Yolo with 11 virus patients in hospitals as of Wednesday’s update, up from two from Tuesday’s nine. Six are in ICUs, with two ICU beds now available.
El Dorado County has reported 8,785 positive test results and 86 deaths. El Dorado added 23 cases and no deaths in a Tuesday update.
El Dorado has reported a remarkable surge in virus deaths compared to the first several months of the health crisis: 82 county residents died of COVID-19 between Nov. 25 and Feb. 1, compared to four from last March through mid-November.
State data show El Dorado’s COVID-19 patient total has plummeted, from 21 two weeks ago to four as of Wednesday. The ICU total has held at zero for four straight days, and five ICU beds are available.
In Sutter County, at least 8,594 people have contracted the virus and 92 have died. Yuba County, which shares a health office with Sutter, has reported 5,513 infections and 36 dead, last reporting four deaths in a Monday update that included the weekend.
The lone hospital serving the Yuba-Sutter bicounty region — Adventist-Rideout in Marysville — had 36 hospitalized virus patients as of Wednesday’s state data update, same as Wednesday, but with the ICU total falling from 11 to nine. The number of available ICU beds also dropped, from five to four.
This story was originally published February 10, 2021 at 7:30 AM.
