CA Hits Over 7M Coronavirus Infections, With 1M In The Past Week
ACROSS CALIFORNIA — California has surpassed more than 7 million cases since the start of the pandemic, according to the California Department of Public Health. As of late Monday, the state has reported a total of 7,109,148 cases since March 2020.
The state recorded 1 million new cases in just a week, the fastest accumulation of reported infections in the history of the pandemic, according to the Los Angeles Times. Even during last winter’s wave, the state took just over three weeks to increase its case count by 1 million, according to The Times. In Los Angeles County, the number of new cases has increased almost tenfold in just a month.
California’s daily COVID-19 death rate has also risen dramatically in the past week: during the seven-day period ending Sunday, the state recorded 103 deaths a day, roughly double the final week of 2021. While this represents a staggering rise, the current death rate is still a far cry from the highest levels. In late January 2021, California’s weekly death rate was 545 deaths a day, according to The Times.
The latest winter wave, driven by an omicron variant that is said to be two to four times more contagious than last year’s delta variant, has placed a dramatic strain on hospitals around the state. As of the middle of last week, California hospitals reported a total of 52,400 patients, which is just shy of the record 53,000 reported during last winter’s surge. On Monday, 2,311 COVID-positive patients were recorded in California intensive care units: a slight increase beyond the summer 2021 delta surge, but below the record 4,868 reported during last winter’s surge.
Last week, California state epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan told the Los Angeles Times that hospitals are seeing “near-crisis levels” of emergency room crowding. At the same time, the surge has led to widespread staffing shortages, and forced many hospitals to postpone scheduled surgeries to accommodate the influx of new patients.
Despite the onslaught of bad news, hopeful signs of a crest are emerging. First, officials in Santa Clara County reported that coronavirus levels in wastewater, generally an accurate harbinger of future case rates, are starting to subside. Wastewater samples around the country are showing similar results, according to a report in the Mercury News.
The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projects that in California, daily cases will peak at 135,750 by Jan. 24, daily hospital counts will crest at 31,510 by Jan. 30, and daily deaths will peak at 150 by Feb. 1. In New York, 90,000 new coronavirus cases were recorded for the seven-day period ending Jan. 9, but as of Monday, just 40,000 cases a day were recorded.
Statewide test positivity has also fallen for the first time in weeks, the Sacramento Bee reports. On Tuesday, the California Department of Public Health reported a positivity rate of 21.1%, down from the Jan. 10 peak of 23.1 percent. The CDPH also reported a slight decrease in the statewide daily case rate, from 275 per 100,000 on Monday to 271 per 100,000 Tuesday.
The cautious optimism comes at the same time the White House unfurled covidtests.gov, a website where Americans can order up to four free rapid antigen COVID-19 tests. The tests will be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service to “valid residential addresses,” and are expected to arrive at most locations by late January.
People around the country reported the government site as operational on Tuesday, one day ahead of the expected Wednesday rollout. Although many people were able to order four tests to their homes for free, the White House says that the website is still in a beta phase and operating at limited capacity as of Tuesday.
"In alignment with website launch best practices, COVIDtests.gov is currently in its beta phase, which means that the website is operating at limited capacity ahead of its official launch," a White House official told CNN. "This is standard practice to address troubleshooting and ensure as smooth of an official launch tomorrow as possible. We expect the website to officially launch mid-morning tomorrow."
The Biden Administration also said that it is setting up a telephone hotline to order tests, but it is unknown when the hotline will become available.
Each household is entitled to four free tests, regardless of household size. Tests are expected to ship within seven to 12 days, a White House official told CNN.
The Biden Administration announced in late 2021 that it planned to buy 500 million at-home tests to distribute free to every U.S. household. The purchase is expected to cost about $4 billion, a senior administration official said during a press call. More than 420 million tests are already in contract, and administration officials are working to finalize the contract of the final 80 million, according to a Monday report from NBC Today.
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This article originally appeared on the Across California Patch
