Coronavirus cases surge 53.4% in California

New coronavirus cases leaped in California in the week ending Saturday, rising 53.4% as 82,368 cases were reported. The previous week had 53,705 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

California ranked No. 43 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 1,184,520 reported cases of coronavirus, an increase of 16.5% from the week before. Across the country, 44 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 Alpine, Lassen and Imperial counties. Adding the most new cases overall were Los Angeles County, with 25,320 cases; San Bernardino County, with 10,286 cases; and San Diego County, with 7,028. Weekly case counts rose in 53 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.

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The share of California test results that came back positive was 6.1% in the latest week, compared with 4.6% in the week before, a USA TODAY Network analysis of COVID Tracking Project data shows.

In the latest week, 1,300,236 tests were administered; a week earlier, that figure was 1,106,445. 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.

In the state, 419 people died in the latest week. In the previous week, 292 people died.

A total of 1,105,435 people in California have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 18,672 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 12,088,410 people have tested positive and 255,861 people have died.