While California Governor Gavin Newsom did not have a coronavirus news conference on Thursday, there was still plenty of news. The state reported a grim new record: The number of daily deaths from the virus rose to 157. The previous high, 149, was seen on July 12.
That means the total number of COVID-related deaths in the state has now topped 8,000, with 8,027.
The state also saw a massive 12,040 new COVID infections in the prior 24 hours. That’s just below the record, set on Wednesday, Newsom which was 12,807 new cases. Newsom said this total was “the highest in the nation.”
The state counted 6,825 coronavirus patients in the hospital as of Thursday and 1,978 infected people in the ICU. Thankfully, those numbers were down 4.8 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively.
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Also on Wednesday, California had the unwanted distinction of surpassing New York as the state with the most COVID-19 infections. California’s 413,576 confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped the 408,886 seen in New York State as of Wednesday.
Of course, California is the most populous state in the U.S., with about twice as many residents as New York State, so those totals should be taken in the context of the states’ total populations. But it is telling given that New York was previously the epicenter of the virus in the nation and, at one point, the world.
According to a calculation by the Sacramento Bee, about 1 in 96 state residents have or have had the virus.
On Thursday, California had 425,616 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The number of COVID-19 diagnostic test results in California reached a total of 6,778,304, an increase of 113,306 tests over the past 24 hours. The rate of positive tests over the last 14 days is 7.6 percent.
The Health Director of the state’s largest county, Los Angeles, said on Wednesday, “COVID-19 appears to be on track to claim more lives in L.A. County than any other disease than coronary heart disease.” Flu, she said, is nowhere near as deadly as COVID-19. In the first six months of 2020, COVID-19 killed twice as many people in the region as did the flu over the 8-month flu season this year and last.
