The Bay Area is seeing the largest spike in COVID-19 cases amid the latest wave to hit the state.
Dr. Erica Pan, the state epidemiologist, told doctors
in an online event
This week, the California Department of Public Health is tracking several indicators that point to worsening trends, including the rate of positive tests, hospitalizations and sewage samples from dozens of sewer sheds.
The latter, one of the most reliable forms of surveillance since it does not depend on
individual testsshows a high level of
coronavirus
circulating in northern California.
“The Bay Area is where we’re seeing the biggest increases,” Pan said. “Some of the levels in these hangars are actually higher than during the omicron peak.”
The daily number of new cases reported statewide reached 8,669 on Thursday, an increase of 32% from the previous month and 11% from a week ago, according to
health service data. That translates to about 23 new cases per day per 100,000 statewide, while the Bay Area is reporting 30 per 100,000.
New hospital admissions of patients with confirmed COVID-19 statewide rose to 4,508, up 121% from a month ago and up 3% from a week ago. Hospitalizations are nearing the peak of 4,826 reported during the BA.5 omicron summer surge in July, with 82% of the state
inpatient beds currently in use.
California’s seven-day coronavirus test positivity rate, which tracks the percentage of positive lab test results for COVID-19, is just over 11% – stable from last week but up from double what it was the first week of November.
Half the state’s population, including the entire Bay Area, now has an “average.”
COVID-19 Community Levels, based on measurements from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At this level, masking is required in certain high-risk environments such as prisons and shelters, per California Department of Public Health guidelines.
But Pan said officials are encouraging everyone to “go ahead and mask up again indoors and in crowded environments” – not only for COVID but also because of
an influx of flu and RSVor respiratory syncytial virus.
In their first joint message in months,
a dozen Bay Area health officials warned Thursday
that the high levels of circulating virus are straining the region’s health systems.
Echoing Pan’s message, they also
urged people to mask up indoors
in addition to getting vaccinated, staying home when sick, and getting tested before gathering.
“Masks can prevent transmission of COVID, influenza, RSV and other respiratory viruses all at once,” health workers from Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Santa Clara counties wrote. , Santa Cruz, San Francisco, San Francisco Mateo, Solano, Sonoma and the city of Berkeley.
They specify that individuals must wear a high quality mask, such as a KN94, KN95 or N95.
“Wearing a mask is strongly recommended inside public places to prevent the spread of viruses and reduce the risk of illness,” the joint statement said. “Masks also reduce the likelihood that you will transmit an infection if you are already sick, even if your symptoms are mild.”
About 9% of total inpatient hospitalizations in the state are currently for patients with COVID-19, Pan said. Once this number reaches 10%, it will trigger additional measures. “It’s similar to what we saw last winter during our omicron push,” she said. “Hospitals are really stretched.”
New coronavirus cases are on the rise in 90% of the country, White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said Thursday
during a briefing.
Deaths and hospitalizations are also on the rise in the United States, with nearly 3,000 deaths reported last week. Most of them were concentrated in people aged 65 and over, Jha said.
“We have seen COVID cases increase. We have hospitalizations that are increasing,” he told reporters. Deaths are just starting to rise. We obviously want to make sure that it doesn’t go any further.
Pan said adoption of bivalent boosters remains dismal in California. Of the state’s highest-risk people, only 22% of people over 50 have received the new vaccines and 37% of those over 65.
“We are unfortunately much lower than we would like for the state right now,” Pan said, lamenting that “this virus really finds us most vulnerable.”
She also confirmed that the state has changed its approach to making therapies such as the antiviral drug Paxlovid available to anyone who tests positive for the virus.
“Providers should have a low threshold to treat,” Pan told state doctors. “The default should be to prescribe.”
Aidin Vaziri is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com
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