California officials warn against potential COVID surge from Super Bowl, Lunar New Year

Coronavirus cases are on the decline in California, but officials say residents shouldn’t let their guard down just yet.

The state reported a 14-day average positivity rate of 7.2% on Tuesday, down significantly from 11% two weeks ago.

It’s a sign of declining infections, said Mark Ghaly, Secretary of California Health and Human Services, and the state is projecting ICU capacities across the state will rise above 30% by March. Only a few weeks ago, many regions were experiencing 0% ICU capacities.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are also down, decreasing 28.8% in the past 14 days.

The state numbers are good, but they could be better. Prior to Thanksgiving and the holidays, California was reporting 14-day positivity rates under 5%.

Now, even as vaccine distribution ramps up, new variants and complacency could spell another wave of infections for California.

“The chance for another surge in California is real,” Ghaly said at a Tuesday press conference. “Our case rates are down, but they’re not low.”

People shouldn’t lose sight of the fundamentals: wearing a mask and social distancing. Ghaly warned against the consequences of Super Bowl parties this coming weekend and Lunar New Year celebrations on Feb. 12. People should continue to only gather with members of their own households, and wear masks whenever out in public or visiting people in different households, he said.

Gatherings in the fall and over the holidays led to “a lot of death” in California Ghaly said, warning that the state could see more fatalities from Super Bowl or Lunar New Year gatherings.

“Let’s not have the Super Bowl become the next beginning of a huge surge in California,” he said. “We give COVID an inch, and it takes a mile.”

After a slow start, the state is beginning to ramp up vaccine distribution. As of Monday, California had distributed more than 3.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Still, officials say they’re closely monitoring new virus variants, including two West Coast mutations and the mutation first identified in the United Kingdom.

Some mutations are meaningful and create more infectiousness, Ghaly said. Researchers have found that the U.K. variant is more infectious, but does not change the effectiveness of the vaccine. Less is known about the two West Coast variants, which have shown up in more than 1,000 cases in California.

“We are continuing to actively sequence the virus here in California,” he said.

This story was originally published February 2, 2021 at 1:40 PM.