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California officially has the lowest coronavirus case rate of any state, according to federal figures, highlighting progress in the ongoing battle against the highly infectious variant of the Delta.
The state was among the national leaders in this measure last week, as the number of newly confirmed coronavirus infections continues to fall after peaking earlier this summer.
California’s rate of new cases per 100,000 population is less than half of neighboring states, according to data from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some hard-hit states have more than triple the numbers for California.
Statewide
California’s seven-day case rate on Sunday was 109.6 per 100,000 people. The closest state was Maryland at 143.4.
Comparable rates over the same period were 386.2 cases per 100,000 people in Texas; 355.9 in Florida; 308.6 in Oregon; 266.3 in Nevada; and 262.7 in Arizona, according to federal data.
Last week, the state’s coronavirus transmission level temporarily rose from “high” to “substantial,” the second-highest level as defined by the CDC. California was the only state to advance in this category at the time, although like the rest of the country, with the exception of Puerto Rico, it is now considered to have high community transmission.
The CDC’s scale for assessing levels of coronavirus transmission ranks conditions into one of four levels: worst – high – is color coded red, followed by substantial (orange), moderate (yellow), and low (blue). .
Federal figures illustrate California’s recent success in reversing the wave of coronavirus fueled by the Delta variant.
Over the past week, the state has reported on average just under 9,000 new cases per day – down about 36% from two weeks ago, according to data compiled by The Times.
COVID-19-related hospitalizations have also fallen in recent times. At the height of the current outbreak, more than 8,300 coronavirus-positive patients were hospitalized at one time across the state. Now that daily census has dropped to just over 6,000, according to state data.
But progress has been uneven. While the Bay Area, in general, experienced the mildest summer wave and Los Angeles succeeded with new measures to slow the Delta variant, the Central Valley and parts of rural northern California were hit hardest.
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County continues to report an improvement in weekly COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
About a month ago, the county averaged more than 3,400 new coronavirus infections per day over a one-week period, according to a Times analysis of state data. But in the week ending Sunday, LA County averaged about 2,000 cases per day.
And on Saturday, 1,053 coronavirus-positive patients were hospitalized across the county – down about 41% from the previous month.
Nonetheless, levels of coronavirus transmission remain high and unvaccinated people are still at high risk of becoming infected with the highly contagious virus.
People who have not been vaccinated are also at a much higher risk of being hospitalized. Of the hundreds admitted to the LA County public hospital system since June 15 with a diagnosis primarily related to COVID-19, 93% have not been vaccinated.
Most vaccinated people who have been hospitalized have weakened immune systems and “are therefore unable to develop a sufficient immune response after vaccination,” according to county health services director Dr Christina Ghaly.
Central valley
But the situation remains grim elsewhere.
Hospitals in the San Joaquin Valley – which the state defines as Calaveras, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tulare and Tuolumne counties – reported having less than 10 % of their cumulative workforce. Adult intensive care beds available for 18 consecutive days.
Some healthcare facilities in the region are still so overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients that some critically ill people are waiting days to be transferred to the intensive care unit from the emergency room, officials said.
A hospital in the Fresno area had nine critically ill patients who were unable to enter the intensive care unit for more than three days, acting health officer Dr Rais Vohra said during a briefing. press conference last week. This forces emergency room staff to treat patients requiring intensive care, disrupting the health care of other patients with less severe illness.
“We’re basically putting a lot of effort into what the emergency service needs to do,” Vohra said. “We still anticipate at least a few more weeks of deeply impacted operations” in intensive care units and emergency rooms.
Hospitals in Fresno County are wavering over the need to ration health care and implement “standards of care in times of crisis,” Vohra said. In these situations, hospitals conclude that they can no longer provide the same level of health care to everyone and must choose which lives to prioritize to keep as many patients alive as possible.
Hospitals in Fresno County and the greater San Joaquin Valley remain extremely busy, said Dan Lynch, director of the Central California Emergency Medical Services Agency. Most hospitals in Fresno County are operating at 108% to 110% of their standard capacity, while the Clovis Community Medical Center near Fresno is operating at 130% of capacity.
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