Coronavirus updates: California death toll at 45,000, up 15,000 in less than a month
California has hit two different milestones in the coronavirus crisis, one grim and the other hopeful.
The state on Thursday surpassed 45,000 COVID-19 deaths for the pandemic. The California Department of Public Health reported the official death toll at 45,456 with a single-day increase of 461, slightly below the state’s average of 464 over the past two weeks.
The first 15,000 fatalities took more than six months, from March to September. The next 15,000 took a little less than four months, from late September to mid-January.
The most recent 15,000 came in just under a month.
But on the hopeful side, more than one in 10 Californians have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and CDPH.
The state reported Thursday that about 5.29 million total doses have been administered, and the CDC on its data tracker Thursday showed the state of 40 million people surpassing 4 million first doses. Nearly 1 million have had both doses, according to the CDC.
The pace has improved from a stumbling start to the rollout. The CDPH data tracker shows California has administered an average of about 1.07 million total doses per week over the past four weeks, including both first and second doses.
The state’s infection and hospitalization metrics are also showing vast improvement from the peak of the winter surge in early January.
Since then, the two-week daily case rate has fallen from over 40,000 to just over 13,000; test positivity has dropped from 14% to 5.4%; and the number of confirmed COVID-19 patients in hospital beds has cut in half, from nearly 22,000 to about 10,400 as of Thursday’s update from CDPH.
To date, more than 3.37 million Californians have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Which variants have been found in California?
A major focus among health officials in the past several weeks has been the emergence of genetic variants of the coronavirus that have shown signs of being more infectious, resistant to vaccination and possibly deadlier.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, speaking during a Wednesday news conference at a vaccine center site in Fresno, announced California has confirmed its first two cases of a variant called B.1.351, which was first located in South Africa, in the Bay Area. One case was found in Alameda County and the other in Santa Clara County.
Labs in the state have also found 159 cases of B.1.1.7, first located in the United Kingdom, since it was first found here in late December. That includes one case in Yolo County, which county officials and UC Davis researchers said earlier this week was the first confirmed discovery of the variant in the Sacramento area.
Labs have also confirmed more than 1,200 cases of a pair of variants that appear to have originated on the West Coast.
Scientists are still studying the variants and determining their potential impact. Researchers are confident B.1.1.7 is much more contagious than other strains of the virus, but are still researching whether it may also be deadlier. Early data indicate the two vaccines currently authorized for emergency use, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, appear effective against B.1.1.7.
There’s more concern regarding vaccine efficacy with respect to B.1.351. Rollout of AstraZeneca’s vaccine had to be paused in South Africa after early clinical data suggested those shots were minimally effective against B.1.351.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, has said repeatedly during White House news briefings that the emergence of concerning variants makes the vaccination campaign all the more urgent.
“Viruses cannot mutate if they don’t replicate,” Fauci has said numerous times.
California teachers are retiring early due to the pandemic
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) said this week that teachers in the state are retiring in the highest numbers in more than a decade, many of them due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a survey of over 500 teachers who retired in the second half of 2020, CalSTRS said 62% retired earlier than planned and, of those, more than half cited the challenge of teaching during a pandemic and more than one-third cited fear of exposure to COVID-19 as the reason.
Latest Sacramento-area numbers
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 1,963 virus deaths.
Sacramento County has confirmed 89,634 cases since the start of the pandemic, and at least 1,360 of those residents died of COVID-19. The county reported 271 cases and increased the death toll by eight in Thursday’s daily update, following 264 cases and 17 deaths reported Wednesday.
By date of death occurrence, December and January were Sacramento County’s two deadliest months of the pandemic. Local health officials have confirmed 382 deaths for December and at least 284 in January.
Local health officials have also started confirming deaths for February. At least 12 residents died of the virus the first week of this 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 250 on Wednesday to 245 by Tuesday, according to CDPH, and the ICU total fell from 73 to 66.
Placer County health officials have confirmed a total of 19,121 infections and 217 deaths. Placer on Wednesday reported 85 new cases and confirmed one new death, following 63 new cases and two deaths reported Tuesday.
State data Thursday showed 79 virus patients in Placer hospitals, the fewest since Nov. 17 and down substantially from a total of 114 last Friday. The ICU total is now at 18, down from 23 Friday.
Yolo County has reported a total of 12,095 cases and 172 deaths. The county reported 47 new cases and increased the death toll by 12 in an update Tuesday, followed by 40 cases and two new deaths Wednesday.
Yolo officials recently noted that deaths are confirmed in groups, meaning there may be no deaths noted for several days and then many confirmed in a day or two. The county had not reported any deaths Saturday through Monday.
State data showed Yolo with 11 virus patients in hospitals as of Thursday’s update, same as Wednesday, but with the ICU total dropping from six to five.
El Dorado County has reported 8,807 positive test results and 86 deaths. El Dorado added 23 cases Tuesday and 22 on Wednesday with no deaths reported either day.
El Dorado has reported a significant spike 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 and Thursday. The ICU total has held at zero for five straight days.
In Sutter County, at least 8,623 people have contracted the virus and 92 have died. Yuba County, which shares a health office with Sutter, has reported 5,547 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 34 hospitalized virus patients as of Thursday’s state data update, down two from Wednesday, but with the ICU total increasing from nine to 10.
This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 7:27 AM.
