COVID-19 surge continues slow decline in California as Sacramento numbers improve
Coronavirus activity is gradually declining in California after having surged from about the beginning of April through mid-July, state health data show.
The California Department of Public Health on Tuesday reported the statewide test positivity rate for COVID-19 at 14.5%, down from a July 15 peak of 16.3%.
The latest daily case rate, of 40.7 per 100,000 residents, is down 10% in the past week.
And the number of COVID-positive patients in hospital beds across California fell to 4,654 as of Tuesday’s update, down from 4,862 one week earlier.
Positivity numbers remain better than the state average and are continuing to drop in the four-county Sacramento area, with Placer reported at 13.8%, Sacramento at 12.3%, El Dorado at 11.8% and Yolo at 9.4%.
Transmission in the capital region, while improving in the past few weeks, remains high in absolute terms. Test positivity numbers, as well as virus levels found in local wastewater for Sacramento and Davis, indicate similar levels of COVID-19 activity to last summer’s delta variant surge. Virus genes in Sacramento wastewater have fluctuated at about the same level since late May.
The current surge is fueled by contagious subvariants of omicron: the now-dominant BA.5, and its sister subvariant BA.4.
Positivity rates are now highest in parts of the San Joaquin Valley, including Merced at 22% positivity, Fresno County at 19.1% and Stanislaus at 18.4%; as well as some Southern California counties, including Riverside at 19.2%.
Los Angeles County last week scrapped a plan to return to an indoor mask mandate. Health officials said case and hospital numbers appeared to be stabilizing, though the county found itself classified for a third straight week in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “high” community level for COVID-19 danger, which would have triggered the local mask order until Thursday’s reversal.
California as of Tuesday sat less than 18,000 cases away from 10 million COVID-19 lab-confirmed infections since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, and will likely reach the eight-figure milestone later this week.
BA.5 and BA.4 now vast majority of U.S. cases
BA.5 and BA.4 made up 97% of cases nationwide and 98% for the region that includes California, each up from 95% the previous week, the CDC said in a weekly update Tuesday.
Health experts have said BA.5 and BA.4 are more contagious and better at reinfecting those recently infected with other variants, such as BA.2, which was California’s dominant strain this spring.
Sacramento-area numbers by county
Sacramento County’s latest case rate is 32.7 per 100,000 residents, state health officials said in Tuesday’s update, a 2% increase from one week earlier.
Hospitals in Sacramento County were treating 205 virus patients Monday, state data show, down from 239 one week earlier. The intensive care load decreased to 26 from 32.
Placer County’s latest case rate is 19.9 per 100,000 residents, a 16% decrease from one week earlier.
Hospitals in Placer County were treating 82 virus patients Monday, down from 88 one week earlier. The ICU total remained at 11.
Yolo County’s latest case rate is 25.6 per 100,000 residents, a 6% decrease from one week earlier.
Hospitals in Yolo County were treating four virus patients Monday, down from five a week earlier. The ICU total remained at one.
El Dorado County’s latest case rate is 19.4 per 100,000 residents, a 4% decrease from one week earlier.
Hospitals in El Dorado County were treating six virus patients Monday, down from nine a week earlier. The ICU total increased to two from zero.
Sutter County’s latest case rate is 29.9 per 100,000 residents, down 13% from last week, and Yuba County’s is 32.2 per 100,000, down 16%, state health officials reported Tuesday.
The only hospital in Yuba County, which serves the Yuba-Sutter bicounty area, was treating 13 virus patients Monday, down from 15 one week earlier. The ICU total increased to three from zero.
This story was originally published August 2, 2022 at 11:11 AM.
