The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in California and the Bay Area continued to sink over the weekend — a sign of progress amid a clouded data landscape.
Statewide, the 5,636 active hospitalizations were its fewest since July 3, while the 670 patients in the Bay Area amounted to the region’s fewest since July 15. Just in the past week, the Bay Area’s count has fallen by more than 100 patients, fueled in large part by significant declines in San Francisco and Alameda County.
San Francisco shed 26.6% of its hospitalized COVID-19 patients since this time last week, down to 77 in the most recent update Saturday. In Alameda County, there were 163 patients confirmed to have COVID-19 on Saturday — the second-most in the region, behind Santa Clara County, but a 17.6% decrease from a week ago.
Statewide, hospitalizations have fallen by nearly 800 patients, or about 11.5%, in the past week. Since its peak July 21, the number of hospital patients has fallen 21%.
In Los Angeles County, hospitalizations have fallen 15% in the past week. In San Diego and Orange counties, hospitalizations are down 14% in the same time period, while they have fallen 19% in Riverside County.
Epidemiologists identified the count of hospitalizations as an important metric early on in the coronavirus pandemic, but it’s taken on added weight in recently in California after the state’s test and case numbers were thrown into doubt last week. Up to 300,000 tests have gone unreported in recent weeks because of errors in the state database, Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s top health official, said Friday.
Over the weekend, counties around state reported another 11,698 cases and 101 deaths from the virus, according to data compiled by this news organization. Amid the reporting problems, the seven-day average of new cases has plummeted to about 6,900 per day, a 26.5% drop off in the past two weeks. The average daily deaths in the state have also fallen slightly to about 131 on Sunday, down from a peak of about 145 Thursday. However, they remain about 40% higher than a month ago, when about 90 Californians were perishing each day from the virus.
Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties each reported one death Sunday, following 11 between the Bay Area’s counties on Saturday. The 789 new cases in the region Sunday was the most it has reported on any Sunday, typically a slow reporting day because San Mateo, Marin, Santa Cruz, Solano and Napa counties don’t update their data on Sundays.
Still, the region’s seven-day average of cases remained steady, just below 1,000 per day, about where it has been for close to a month. The Bay Area’s seven-day average of deaths has fallen about 13.5% since its peak a week ago — just under 11 fatalities per day from the virus.
In Los Angeles County, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the county’s public health director, said 69% of new cases were among those under 50 years old and those between the ages of 30-49 accounted for the largest share of any age group — 35% of the 1,767 new cases reported Sunday in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles has cut its number of hospital patients by nearly one-third in the past three weeks. Just in the past week, it has fallen 15% to 1,514 active hospitalizations Saturday, the lowest it has been since June 20. At its recent peak, there were 621 patients in intensive care units in the county on July 21, or about 40% of its available beds. That had fallen to 476 ICU patients Saturday, the fewest since June 28, or about 36% of available beds.
Even the counties closest to capacity in their intensive care units were in better shape Saturday than they were at the end of July.
In the eight-county San Joaquin Valley on Saturday, there were 280 patients being treated in ICUs. That’s about 70% of available ICU beds in the region, which runs from Stockton to Bakersfield. A week ago, nearly 80% of ICU beds in the region were occupied.
In the Bay Area, for comparison, there were 231 ICU patients, taking up about 37% of the total intensive-care beds in the region.
San Francisco has also been the largest driver of a modest decrease in ICU patients in the past week. The regional count has fallen by about 8.5% to its current count of 231, but San Francisco alone saw a 25.6% reduction.
Solano and Sonoma counties were the closest to capacity in the region, with Solano using about 80% of its available ICU beds, while Sonoma’s ICU beds were nearly 60% full Saturday.
