California established an indoor mask law in California last December 15, just as the Omicron wave was gaining momentum. State Public Health Officer Tomás Aragón The move was “to add a layer of mitigation as the Omicron variant, a Variant of Concern as labeled by the World Health Organization, increased in prevalence across California, the United States, and the world and spread much more easily than the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and the Delta variant.” At the time, the state’s 7-day average rate of test positivity was 2.6%.
The state is currently being plagued by a Variant of Concern called BA.5, which is a sublineage that has a growth advantage of at least fourfolds of the original Omicron since December. According to CDC data at the end last week, BA.5 (and its sister subvariant BA.4) accounted for 68% of the new cases in the region that consists mainly from California, Arizona, Nevada. BA.5 accounts to the overwhelming majority of these cases, and it looks like it will push out all other variants over the coming weeks.
California’s current 7-day test positivity rate is 16.7%. The current summer surge has the dubious distinction, having the second-highest test positivity rate the state has seen since the pandemic. It’s second only to the very peak of last winter’s Omicron wave. And it’s still going higher.
Since BA.5’s increased growth rate is largely due to its ability to evade the protection provided by previous infection and — to a lesser extent — the protection provided by vaccination, the state cannot count on vaccination in the same way it could with the original Omicron wave.
What’s more, the three most concerning metrics to health officials — hospital and ICU beds occupied by those infected with Covid and the average number of daily Covid deaths — are already It’s far more than thatWhere they were before Christmas.
The director of public health in the state’s most populous county, Los Angeles, said yesterday that she expects her county will move into the CDC’s “High”As a result, the number of people who have become Covids will rise next week. L.A. will be reimposed a mask mandate in public areas if it remains in this category for more than 14 days.
Across the state, 35 of California’s 58 counties are also so designated by the CDC. Many of them haven’t spoken out against reinstituting concealment. The state is not the only one who hasn’t spoken out about it.
One seeming bright spot in the region’s situation dims on closer inspection.
Although reported cases have increased steadily over the last month, they are not growing at the same pace as in December. However, test results are reporting have fallen dramatically since December due to more Californians using at home kits. These results are not included in official reporting.
Ashish Jha, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, was appointed. Submitted Lester Holt on NBC’s Nightly News last night, “There’s no question in my mind that we’re missing a vast majority of infections right now.”
Even with the limited test reporting, the number recorded in California today — 13,000 new cases — is already 44% above the approximately 9,000 cases reported on December 15 of last year. That, coupled with the Golden State’s sky-high test positivity and a much more infectious variant, does not bode well.