Coronavirus cases surge 15.6% in California

New coronavirus cases continued to increase in California in the week ending Saturday, rising 15.6% as 95,189 cases were reported. The previous week had 82,368 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

California ranked No. 39 among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week the United States added 1,140,385 reported cases of coronavirus, a decrease of 3.9% from the week before. Across the country, 16 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

Within California, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Lassen, Alpine and Imperial counties. Adding the most new cases overall were Los Angeles County, with 29,022 cases; San Diego County, with 9,309 cases; and San Bernardino County, with 7,963. Weekly case counts rose in 43 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties.

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

The share of California test results that came back positive was 6% in the latest week, compared with 6.1% in the week before, a USA TODAY Network analysis of COVID Tracking Project data shows. In the latest week, 1,601,350 tests were administered; a week earlier, that figure was 1,300,236. Experts say it is important to look at the share of tests that come back positive, not just case counts, to get a better idea of whether the rate of new infections is changing or if differences in testing are playing a role.

The World Health Organization says places should be conducting enough tests to have fewer than 5% coming back positive. Places where the percentage is higher could struggle to complete contact tracing soon enough to prevent spread of the virus.

Across California, cases fell in 14 counties, with the best declines in San Bernardino, Merced and Shasta counties.

In the state, 444 people died in the latest week. In the previous week, 419 people died.

A total of 1,200,624 people in California have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 19,116 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 13,244,417 people have tested positive and 266,047 people have died.