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SAN FRANCISCO –
Despite a significant spike in both coronavirus cases and hospital admissions this summer, California has so far managed to avoid the sky-high infection rates and increasingly overcrowded hospitals that some other states are now facing.
California’s coronavirus case rate remains below the national average and significantly lower than that of Florida and Texas: two common points of comparison given their population sizes and significantly different pandemic responses.
Experts say California’s above-average vaccination rates and newly introduced mandatory mask guidelines in parts of the state helped prevent a dire situation.
While governors in Florida, Texas, and other states have opposed local governments requiring the wearing of masks, California has allowed counties to issue such regulations in indoor public spaces for anyone ages 2 and up regardless of vaccination status.
“I am confident about California and Los Angeles as we have higher vaccination rates and the number of people stepping on the plate and getting vaccinated,” said Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, medical epidemiologist and infectious disease expert at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “However, due to the increased portability of the Delta variant, we still have a way to go to achieve a higher level of community or herd immunity.”
California reports 141.1 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 population in the past seven days – a rate half that of Texas, 297.8; and less than a quarter of the 653.8 rate in Florida, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California’s rate is also below the national average of 232.1.
The flood of COVID-19 patients newly admitted to Florida hospitals is now far worse than ever during their winter surge. In early January, Florida reported more than 1,150 new COVID-19 patients admitted daily. However, for the past week, the state has recorded an average of 2,071 new COVID-19 hospital admissions every day.
In contrast, California reports 772 new COVID-19 hospital admissions every day, just 32% of its winter high of 2,380. On a per capita basis, the rate of daily hospital admissions in Florida is five times that of California.
Texas now reports 1,403 new COVID-19 hospital admissions daily, 75% of its winter high of 1,873.
There are also some signs that the California Delta rise is slowing after officials in many counties introduced universal indoor public masking. Some companies have also started to require proof of vaccination as a prerequisite for employment or entry.
For the week that ended Sunday, LA County reported a total of 20,979 new coronavirus cases – a modest 6.5% increase from the previous week, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Tuesday. By comparison, the county saw a 22% increase the week before.
Over the same period, the rest of California reported a total of 55,422 cases, up 20% from the previous week. In the week before, the increase was 57%.
LA County was one of the first local governments in the country that summer to recommend and then encourage the wearing of masks in public indoor spaces – a move soon followed by others, including Sacramento and Santa Barbara counties and much of the San Francisco Bay area .
“Data from around the world and our county has repeatedly shown that masking is valuable protection against the transmission of respiratory viruses,” said Ferrer.
Officials stressed that the Delta variant continues to pose a public health threat and they expect the cases to increase in the coming weeks. However, they hope that the steps already taken will flatten the course of the pandemic and eventually reverse it without resorting to more stringent measures.
The main reason for this optimism is California’s relatively robust level of vaccination. According to the latest CDC figures, 77.5% of eligible Californians – those who are 12 years old or older – have already received at least one dose, and about 63% are considered fully vaccinated.
In Florida, about 69% of its age population are at least partially vaccinated and 57% have completed their vaccination series. The comparable rates in Texas are 64.3% and 53.7%, respectively, according to federal figures.
Officials and experts say the overwhelming majority of people currently hospitalized for COVID-19 in California and across the country still need to be vaccinated.
Of 117 people admitted to Los Angeles County’s public hospitals between June 15 and August 5, primarily for COVID-19, 112 were not fully vaccinated and only five were fully vaccinated, according to Dr. Christina Ghaly, the county health services director.
“The vaccine saves lives,” she said on Tuesday. “It reduces the risk of infection, it reduces the risk of the virus being passed on to others, and most importantly, it reduces the risk of those people actually serving as a petri dish in which the virus can progressively mutate.” More dangerous forms that endanger everyone. “
Vaccines aside, health officials and experts have long noted that pandemic conditions vary based on a number of factors. Some areas may have stricter rules for the coronavirus or there may be residents who, for whatever reason, are more likely to take individual precautions in their daily lives.
Other areas may largely mock such restrictions.
Perhaps nowhere is the gap between California and Florida and Texas more apparent than in the masks.
California has urged all residents, including those who are fully vaccinated, to wear masks indoors in public and encourages them to do so in K-12 schools.
The governors of Texas and Florida, on the other hand, have largely banned schools and local governments from issuing such mandates, although some local leaders resisted these orders.
Given the surge, Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed the state health department to hire recruitment agencies to find additional medical staff and also has a letter to the Texas Hospital Assn. – calling for hospitals to postpone elective medical procedures.
Austin, Texas, Emergency Doctor Natasha Kathuria – a native of Orlando, Florida – said she had heard from doctors in Florida that the situation was worse there, and fears that Texas is heading there. She has already had to send patients home because she was unable to treat them.
“This is disaster medicine,” she said. “We have never felt so discouraged during the pandemic.”
Although California officials have raised concerns about the rapidly increasing hospital admissions, they generally believe the state’s healthcare system will not come under the same type of stress as it did during the state’s devastating fall and winter wave.
Although the surge in new infections has flooded California’s hospitals, the death toll from COVID-19 has remained relatively low for the past week, averaging around 32 deaths per day. That’s a far cry from the regular three-digit numbers seen on previous hikes.
While it is possible that the death toll may not rise as it did earlier in the pandemic – especially since many of Californians most at risk, namely the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, have been vaccinated – Ferrer warned it is too soon to know To say security.
In LA County, she said, someone dying of COVID-19 was diagnosed an average of 37 days beforehand.
“Since our surge in cases has only started relatively recently, it’s too early to fully assess the impact of this latest wave of infections,” she said.
The Times staffer, Molly Hennessy-Fiske of Houston, contributed to this report.
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