California COVID rates improve in January. See how numbers rebounded from winter surge
Coronavirus activity in California has plummeted to its lowest point in nearly three months, as new infections and hospitalizations have shown signs of sharp decline throughout January.
The statewide case rate for COVID-19 fell to 6.8 per 100,000 residents, the California Department of Public Health said in a weekly update Thursday, for the lowest rate since Oct. 27.
California’s test positivity rate dropped to 4.9%, its lowest point since Nov. 3 and down from a New Year’s Eve peak of 12.7% during the recent winter surge.
Hospitalizations are also trending downward. CDPH on Thursday tallied 2,695 patients with confirmed COVID-19 in hospital beds statewide, down 20% from one week earlier and a decline of 41% in the past three weeks.
Virus levels in wastewater, as measured by the Stanford-based Sewer Coronavirus Alert Network research project, have also steadily fallen since late December across sites in the Bay Area and Sacramento.
The improvements come as the state distances itself from the winter holiday season, and amid a relentless series of atmospheric river storms that created deluges throughout the early weeks of 2023, keeping many Californians at home.
“The wave that we already saw this winter — that’s already getting better,” Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious disease at UC Davis Health, said in a recent interview with The Sacramento Bee. “That continues to subside. And if we don’t get any new variants of concern, then hopefully the next wave we’ll have will be next fall or winter.
“But of course, the wildcard is if there’s new variants, that could all change.”
As the world approaches the three-year mark of COVID-19 being declared a pandemic in March 2020, California is on the brink of recording its 100,000th confirmed death from the virus. CDPH as of Thursday reported 99,130 cumulative COVID-19 deaths, with an average of 36 fatalities per day over the past week.
Sacramento still in CDC’s ‘medium’ level for COVID-19
None of California’s 58 counties were classified in the high “community level” for COVID-19 danger, as of a weekly update last Thursday from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sacramento County briefly entered the CDC’s high community level in December, threatening a return to an indoor mask mandate for all Sacramento City Unified School District campuses.
The county returned before the end of the K-12 district’s winter break to the “medium” community level, where it remained as of last week.
Sacramento-area numbers by county
Sacramento County’s latest case rate is 4.9 per 100,000 residents, state health officials said in Thursday’s update, down 40% from one week earlier.
Hospitals in Sacramento County were treating 147 patients Wednesday, state data updated Thursday showed, down from 177 one week earlier. The intensive care unit total decreased to 22 from 26.
Placer County’s latest case rate is 5.5 per 100,000 residents, a 35% decrease from one week earlier.
Hospitals in Placer County were treating 62 virus patients Wednesday, the same as one week earlier. The ICU total increased to nine from eight.
Yolo County’s latest case rate is 4.7 per 100,000 residents, a 16% decrease from one week earlier.
Hospitals in Yolo County were treating two virus patients Wednesday, down from four a week earlier. The ICU total remained at one.
El Dorado County’s latest case rate is 4.2 per 100,000 residents, a 17% decrease from one week earlier.
Hospitals in El Dorado County were treating two virus patients Wednesday, the same as one week earlier. The ICU total decreased to zero from one.
Sutter County’s latest case rate is 5.7 per 100,000 residents, down 38% from last week, and Yuba County’s is 4.9 per 100,000, down 40%, state health officials reported Thursday.
The only hospital in Yuba County, which serves the Yuba-Sutter bicounty area, was treating two virus patients Wednesday, down from six a week earlier. The ICU total decreased to zero from two.
This story was originally published January 26, 2023 at 10:45 AM.
