[ad_1]
LOS ANGELES >> California has the lowest coronavirus transmission rate of any state after a sharp drop in cases and hospitalizations after a summer wave.
The country’s most populous state is the only one with “substantial” transmission of the coronavirus, the second-highest level on the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s color-coded map. Puerto Rico too. In all other US states, transmission of the virus is classified as “high,” defined as 100 or more cases per 100,000 people during the past week.
California’s rate is 94 per 100,000. By comparison, Texas is at 386 and Florida at 296.
State health experts say the relatively high vaccination rates in California before the arrival of the delta variant made a difference, and additional measures, such as masking, also helped stem the outbreak. Nearly 70% of eligible Californians are fully vaccinated and 8% have received their first vaccine, according to state data.
“California’s overall secret was that the vaccination rates were high enough that we started in the correct place,” said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, professor of epidemiology at the University of California, faculty of San Francisco medicine. “We just never reached the height that we saw in Florida, for example, because it’s against a backdrop of pretty high vaccination rates.”
On Monday, a state warrant went into effect requiring attendees at indoor events with 1,000 or more people to show proof of full vaccination or a negative test. Previously, customers were allowed to simply certify that they were vaccinated or tested negative.
California has seen coronavirus cases and hospitalizations decline after a summer spike in cases with the arrival of the delta variant. In the past two weeks, daily new cases have fallen by more than 4,000, a 32% drop, while hospitalizations have dropped 22% to just over 6,000.
The summer surge came after California lifted numerous limits on businesses in June. It followed a much harsher winter wave when authorities closed shops and schools in the state of nearly 40 million people. Meanwhile, sick patients filled many hospitals and thousands died every week.
California’s death toll is now over 68,000, the highest in the country, but the per capita rate is less than more than half of the states.
The harshness of last winter may have helped temper this latest wave in California, said Andrew Noymer, professor of public health at the University of California, Irvine.
“It’s a combination of immunity to the vaccination and to the huge winter wave that we’ve had,” he said.
Los Angeles County, which is home to one in four state residents and has some of the state’s strictest virus mandates, reported a 1.2% positivity rate on Monday.
Barbara Ferrer, LA County Director of Public Health, said safety measures that encourage masks and limit where large numbers of unvaccinated people congregate are needed to avoid “a continuous cycle of outbreaks fueled by new worrying variants “.
In neighboring Orange County, which has looser restrictions than LA, coronavirus cases, positivity rates and hospitalizations have also declined in recent weeks, said Dr Regina Chinsio-Kwong, deputy director of health. County. She said she believed the vaccinations had made a difference, noting that the recent increase was initially detected in coastal areas of the county and other places where vaccination rates were lower.
“In terms of case and hospitalization rates, everything is down,” she said, adding that the county’s positivity rate had fallen to 3.7% from 6.8% at the end of August. “We’re starting to come out of that push, which is good. “
[ad_2]
Source link