Here’s where COVID-19 rates stand, as Newsom sets end date for California’s emergency
Transmission numbers for COVID-19 appear to remain flat in California, as health officials express some concern about new groups of coronavirus subvariants that are increasing in prominence across the U.S. and other parts of the world.
The statewide daily case rate fell to 6.4 per 100,000 residents, the California Department of Public Health reported in a weekly update Thursday, down 17% compared to last week.
But the drop came as diagnostic testing has also steadily fallen, with CDPH reporting lab test volume reaching its lowest point since June 2020.
Test positivity has declined only slightly in the past week, from 4.5% to 4.4%, according to CDPH. Statewide positivity has hovered between 4.2% and 4.9% for about the past month, after having dropped from about 8% to 5% between late August and late September, state data show. Positivity peaked during the summer wave at just over 16%, fueled by the BA.5 subvariant of omicron.
Hospitalizations with the virus continue to trend downward, with 1,617 patients reported statewide Thursday, a 6% decline from last week.
However, virus activity appears to have started to tick up in some parts of the state in recent weeks, including Sacramento.
Data from the Stanford-based Sewage Coronavirus Alert Network shows the level of COVID-19 virus in Sacramento wastewater nearly doubling between Oct. 9 and Oct. 13, though that growth has flattened in the week since then, and both levels remain well below summer’s peak.
State health data as of Thursday showed Sacramento County hospitals treating 114 virus patients, a 20% increase from 94 patients one week earlier. CDPH data also show Sacramento’s test positivity jumping to 5.6% from 4.9% in the past week, a 14% bump.
Hospitalizations have risen slightly in a few other counties, including Riverside and San Francisco, while continuing to decline across most of the rest of California.
BA.5 remains the dominant variant nationwide, reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last Friday at 68% of new cases.
However, a handful of newer variants are making up a rapidly growing share of cases, particularly a pair of new omicron offshoots known as BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, which health experts have said appears to evade immune protection.
BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 have effectively doubled in each of the past two weekly updates from the CDC, increasing from 2.8% to 5.7% of U.S. cases, then from 5.7% to 11.4%. The CDC will provide its next update on variant proportions Friday.
The U.K. Health Security Agency in an Oct. 7 report said BQ-family variants “show evidence of a positive growth rate compared to BA.5,” as do a pair of other omicron subvariants variants called BA.2.75.2 and BF.7.
The report says those three variants could be at least partly responsible for the latest wave hitting Europe, but that it remained too early in the increase to be certain. U.K. health data updated Thursday showed early signs of cases and hospitalizations starting to decline.
Still, health officials are advising diligence as the winter months approach. California’s two worst surges of the pandemic to date have come in winter: in 2020, before vaccines launched; and in 2021, with the arrival of the original omicron variant, BA.1.
California to end COVID-19 emergency in 2023
Newsom lifted scores of orders and provisions earlier this year that had been in place since the governor first declared the public health emergency in March 2020; 27 directives still remain in effect until the end of February.
Republican lawmakers have repeatedly urged Newsom to end the state of emergency in its entirety, arguing it gave the governor too much power to institute policies like the stay-at-home and business shutdown orders in place for most of 2020 and 2021.
Newsom in a statement said California “is ready to phase out this tool.” Administration officials said the February end date allows flexibility in the event of a winter surge.
Sacramento-area numbers by county
Sacramento County’s latest case rate is 6.4 per 100,000 residents, state health officials said in Thursday’s update, a 13% decrease from one week earlier.
Hospitals in Sacramento County were treating 114 virus patients Wednesday, state data updated Thursday show, up from 95 one week earlier. The intensive care unit total increased to 18 from 12.
Placer County’s latest case rate is 4.2 per 100,000 residents, a 15% decrease from one week earlier.
Hospitals in Placer County were treating 33 virus patients Wednesday, up from 32 one week earlier. The ICU total decreased to three from four.
Yolo County’s latest case rate is 6.1 per 100,000 residents, a 15% decrease from one week earlier.
Hospitals in Yolo County were treating five virus patients Wednesday, up from four a week earlier. The ICU total increased to one from zero.
El Dorado County’s latest case rate is 4.5 per 100,000 residents, a 4% increase from one week earlier.
Hospitals in El Dorado County were treating four virus patients Wednesday, down from nine a week earlier. The ICU total decreased to one from two.
Sutter County’s latest case rate is 6.9 per 100,000 residents, up 3% from last week, and Yuba County’s is 4 per 100,000, down 67%, state health officials reported Tuesday.
The only hospital in Yuba County, which serves the Yuba-Sutter bicounty area, was treating two virus patients Wednesday, up from one a week earlier. The ICU total remained at zero.
This story was originally published October 20, 2022 at 11:12 AM with the headline "Here’s where COVID-19 rates stand, as Newsom sets end date for California’s emergency."
