As Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday rescinded the stay order in California, COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state continued to plummet and their average daily cases remained near their lowest point in months.
California hospitals are launching an average network of 300 patients a day, as they peaked just over two weeks ago and recently fell to 17,432 active hospitalizations on Sunday, a 20% drop in the past two weeks. The positive test rate has also dropped dramatically, to 8% from all tests last week, after that figure reached 14% two weeks ago. According to data collected by this news organization, there are approximately 28,180 new cases a day in California over the past week, with an average of few infections since the second week of December averaging.
However, California is still in the midst of a pandemic death toll. With a monthly death toll in excess of 11,500 and six days left to finish, January is about to be not only the deadliest month of the pandemic in California, but it does so twice. On Monday, the cumulative death toll in California rose to 37,499, more than any state except New York, with 434 deaths reported recently. This pushed the seven-day total to 3,766, or an average of 538 per day, surpassing a period earlier this month as the seven deadliest days in the pandemic state.
Throughout the pandemic, the bay area has been able to defend itself from the massive fatalities in the southern part of the state. On Monday, however, Santa Clara County recorded the third-highest death toll in the state (53, which includes delayed weekend data), the highest figure recorded on any day of the pandemic. Elsewhere in the region, there were 16 additional deaths spread across the counties of Santa Cruz, Solano, Napa, Marin and Alameda.
Although approximately one in five Californians resides in the bay area, only one in ten deaths from COVID-19 has occurred in the region. Southern California, which accounts for just over half the state’s population, has accounted for more than two in three fatalities in the state since the start of the pandemic, and an even larger portion the last month, almost three out of four.
The deaths reported Monday made Santa Clara County total more than 1,200, the highest number of deaths in the bay area and number six in the state. The five counties in front are all in Southern California, led by Los Angeles County, where more than 15,000 residents have died from COVID-19.
In a rare occurrence, Los Angeles County reported ten fewer fatalities Monday than Santa Clara County, but two other Southern California counties maintained the top two spots: Riverside County, where 80 deaths were reported. Monday, and Orange County, where there were 66. Elsewhere in Southern California, Ventura and Imperial counties were also ranked among the top ten statewide, with 18 and 17 dead, respectively.
In the San Joaquin Valley, three counties reported double-digit figures Monday: San Joaquin, with 27; Fresno, with 24; and Tulare, with 11. The overall death toll in Fresno County ranks seventh in California, just behind Sacramento County, where the death toll rose Monday at 28 to 1,185.
Nationally, the United States has similar trends in California: infections are drastically declining and hospitalizations have begun to follow. After spending much of the last month leading the nation, California’s recent reduction in cases has allowed a handful of other states to surpass it in per capita infections over the past week, but in about 65 cases per day per 100,000 residents. , California still ranks in the top 10 nationally.
But deaths in the United States continue to reach some of its highest pandemic numbers. On Monday, the country’s death toll topped 420,000, according to data collected by the New York Times, and the virus continues to kill an average of more than 3,000 Americans a day.