SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — After California broke a daily coronavirus testing record over the holiday weekend, its Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday said hospitalizations remain alarmingly high as Covid-19 continues to spread throughout the state’s largest counties.
Continuing a disturbing weekslong trend in the Golden State, Newsom reported a 50% increase in Covid-19 hospitalizations and a corresponding 39% spike in intensive care patients over the last two weeks. Newsom says most of the new infections are coming out of 23 counties officials have placed on a monitoring list and that regulators are ramping up enforcement of the state’s pandemic-related orders for both businesses and residents.
“This pandemic is still in front of us and continues to spread at rates we have not experienced in the state of California since the beginning of this pandemic,” Newsom said.
Reviving daily press briefings initiated during the early stages of the pandemic, Newsom told reporters that a record 127,000 tests were conducted on Saturday. Despite the rise in the number of people hospitalized with the virus (5,790) and a record-breaking single-day increase of 3,187 new infections in Los Angeles County, Newsom attempted to calm residents’ nerves by claiming the number of open hospital beds is “ample” and ventilators remain “plentiful.”
The virus continues to spread in urban counties like LA, Orange and Sacramento, as well as mostly rural areas including Fresno, Imperial and Colusa. Counties reported nearly 5,700 new cases Monday and the state’s 7-day average for new infections is 7,800.
Across the state, 24 people died over the weekend, bringing the toll to 6,331 since the pandemic began.
In the last several days, Los Angeles County’s infection rate exploded as more young adults tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Hospitalizations in the county are on the rise, with 1,921 people currently being treated for Covid-19 according to public health officials. This represents the highest number of people hospitalized for the virus, and half are between the ages of 18 and 40.
“We are in a new chapter of our response,” said LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer on Monday. “Cases are surging, hospitalization are increasing and mostly this is all reflection of a lot more community spread.”
Over 116,000 people in LA County have been infected with the virus and over 3,500 have died since the pandemic began, according to public health officials.
The county saw over 3,000 new infections Friday and roughly 8,000 cases over the holiday weekend, with nearly 1,600 cases reported on Monday. That figure could be artificially low due to the long weekend but continues to show a trend of rising infections.
Health officials say they don’t know whether residents practiced social distancing over the Independence Day weekend. Results will begin to show up in the next two weeks when residents start to show symptoms from the virus, said Ferrer.
The weeks after Memorial Day saw a spike of positive cases, according to county health data.
"It's clear that after months of quarantine combined... we've had a lot of people disregard the very practices that slowed the spread,” said Ferrer.
In total, over 1.1 million tests have been administered with a 9% positive rate, but health officials note the 7-day rate is roughly 10%. Most positive cases are among people between the ages of 18 and 40. One spot of good news in LA County: Covid-19 eaths are on the decline across the county.
Meanwhile, state public health officials have placed a total of 23 counties on the list due to a variety of factors, mainly for elevated recent hospitalizations and hospital capacity. New additions to the coronavirus watchlist include San Diego, Monterey and Marin.
The state’s seven-day positivity rate — the number of positive cases among residents receiving Covid-19 tests, a key indicator of community spread of the virus — is above 7% for the first time in months. The 14-day rate stands at 6.8%, up from 4.9% two weeks ago.