California had a near-record number of daily coronavirus deaths as pandemic cases strained hospitals and reduced normal intensive care space to a record low, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday, yet there was a faint hint that residents may be heeding medical officials’ increasingly desperate calls for caution during the holidays.
The transmission rate — the number of people that one infected person will in turn infect — also has been slowing for nearly two weeks. The rate of positive cases reached a new high of 12.3% over a two-week period, but was starting to trend down over the last seven days from a peak of 13.3% to 12.6%.
The number of new positive cases dropped to a relatively modest 39,069, given that California has been averaging nearly 44,000 newly confirmed cases a day.
“We are experiencing a modest decline in the rate of the growth,” Newsom said. A three-day decline “doesn’t necessarily make a trend...but it’s a modest indication of a possible sign of some good news.”
Yet the state’s worst surge is taking a horrendous toll that threatens to only worsen if people gather during the holidays.
California recorded the second-highest number of deaths, at 361. The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care units nearly doubled in just three weeks, to 3,827 cases, while the state's overall ICU capacity fell to 1.1%, down from 2.5% just two days ago. The number in hospitals jumped to 18,828 patients, more than double since Dec. 1, with 605 new patients in one day.
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The out of control increases are reminders of how “dynamic and virulent this disease is,” Newsom said.
The statewide total of positive cases is now 1.96 million, with Los Angeles County accounting for one-third of the cases and nearly 40% of deaths.
Statewide, a third of all hospital patients have tested positive for the disease, rising to 70% in some hospitals. All of Southern California and the 12-county San Joaquin Valley to the north have been out of regular ICU capacity for days.
In partial response, the state has 951 health workers assisting at 91 facilities in 25 of the state's 58 counties and is opening a fifth alternative care site at the Palomar Medical Center Escondido in San Diego County.
California expects more federal medical workers to arrive by the weekend, and Newsom said he expects more of the 3,000 contract health care workers the state is seeking to arrive after the holidays.
Newsom said 128,210 doses of vaccines had been administered as of Tuesday, in another encouraging sign beyond the modest decline in the transmission rate.
“I think the regional stay-at-home (order) has had an impact,” he said, referring to lockdowns affecting 98% of the state that mean many businesses must remain closed, restaurants can only serve takeout and virtually all retail is limited to 20% capacity.
But he warned that could dissipate quickly, leading to the nearly 100,000 hospitalizations some models project in one month if people don't heed calls to avoid holiday gatherings, particularly indoors.
“This virus loves social events,” Newsom said. “This virus thrives in that atmosphere.”
