Name: Coronavirus: Where are cases falling fastest in California?
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Coronavirus: Where are cases falling fastest in California?

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By | | Bay Area News GroupCalifornia’s cases of COVID-19 continued their descent Wednesday, but even after being halved from their peak, remained well above any point of the pandemic prior to the current winter wave. Still, every region in the state has seen a substantial decrease in transmission in recent weeks.On Wednesday, California’s daily average of new cases dropped even lower, to approximately 23,000 per day over the past week, according to , its lowest point in nearly two months and a 47% decrease from two weeks ago. Deaths, however, lag behind the drop in cases and are still rising: with 720 reported on Wednesday, California’s three deadliest days of the pandemic have all come in the past week. California’s death toll has soared by nearly 4,000 just in the past seven days — a total higher than any month prior to December, an average of 561 per day — and on Wednesday closed in on 39,000.At its current pace, counties once deep within the purple tier could begin to move within the tiered reopening system in the coming weeks. According to the state’s models, the reproductive rate of the virus has fallen to 0.81 statewide, meaning an average infected person would spread it to only 0.81 others, or that “spread of COVID-19 is likely decreasing.”While Southern California still faces the most cases per-capita of any region in the state, it has also seen the largest recent decline, though the Bay Area and other regions aren’t far behind. At about 70.4 daily cases per 100,000 residents, Southern California’s cases have declined 48% in the past two weeks, slightly outpacing the state’s decline. However, the region continues to account for nearly three in every four deaths in California, despite making up just over half the state’s population. There were over 500 fatalities in the region Wednesday, led by 305 in Los Angeles County, 71 in Orange County and 44 in San Diego County.Even with its substantial decline, Southern California is still averaging more new cases per-capita now than two weeks ago in the Bay Area; since then, cases in the Bay have also declined 47%, to about 33.3/100K. The infection rates in Northern California and Greater Sacramento are slightly lower, each around 30 daily cases per 100,000 residents, but have also declined at a slower pace recently: down 44% in Greater Sacramento and 33% in Northern California over the past two weeks. In the San Joaquin Valley, cases have fallen approximately 45% to about 54.6 per day per 100,000 residents, almost equal to the statewide rate.California has fallen out of the top 10 nationally with a daily infection rate of about 58 cases per 100,000 residents over the past week, but as deaths spike, no state came within 1,500 of its total over the past seven days, and only five reported more per-capita.With 86 fatalities in the region Wednesday, the weekly total in the Bay Area climbed over 500 for the first time of the pandemic, an average of 72 per day. Four counties in the region reported double-digit death tolls Wednesday: Alameda, with 23; Contra Costa, with 15; Santa Clara, with 14; and Monterey, with 13. Deaths in Southern California also hit a new high, at over 400 per day for the first time, equaling the weekly total in the Bay Area in less than a day and a half.On a per-capita basis over the course of the pandemic, the virus has taken the lives of Bay Area residents at less than half the rate of those in Southern California. More than 4,300 Bay Area residents have died from COVID-19, approximately 11% of the statewide death toll, while more than 27,400 have died in Southern California, 70% of the overall statewide death toll.Nationally, the death toll was expected to surpass 430,000 on Thursday, with an average of approximately 3,300 per day over the past week, according to data collected by the New York Times. The country has been averaging at least 3,000 coronavirus deaths every day since the second week of January. But at about 163,000 cases per day, the country’s curve has been bent further than any point since the week prior to Thanksgiving.We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.Get Morning Report and other email newslettersFollow UsMost PopularClose

By | | Bay Area News GroupCalifornia’s cases of COVID-19 continued their descent Wednesday, but even after being halved from their peak, remained well above any point of the pandemic prior to the current winter wave. Still, every region in the state has seen a substantial decrease in transmission in recent weeks.On Wednesday, California’s daily average of new cases dropped even lower, to approximately 23,000 per day over the past week, according to , its lowest point in nearly two months and a 47% decrease from two weeks ago. Deaths, however, lag behind the drop in cases and are still...

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Evan Webeck

Latest Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay Area news from reporters & columnists at The Mercury News.

Coronavirus: Where are cases falling fastest in California?

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