After a week of surging numbers in newly confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths across California, the rate of increase has slowed for the second day in a row.
Public health officials around the state recorded 1,296 coronavirus cases and 81 deaths on Saturday, according to data compiled by this news organization.
The number of new cases is a 3 percent increase from Saturday and brings the total number in the state to 42,531. Deaths were up by 4.7 percent.
In the Bay Area, Santa Clara County topped 2,000 confirmed cases on Friday. Between Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, Contra Costa and Alameda counties, the region has reported 6,534 coronavirus cases and 232 deaths.
The increase in cases and deaths came just as public health officials began releasing more information about the first known victim of coronavirus in the US, a Santa Clara County woman who died of a “burst” heart, according to a pathologist.
Patricia Dowd, 57, of San Jose, died at home Feb. 6 of what seemed like a heart attack while suffering from what seemed like the flu. But The Mercury News reported Thursday that officials now say she had the coronavirus, which they didn’t know at the time.
Meanwhile, the shelter-in-place order mandated to prevent more deaths from the virus appears to be getting on people’s nerves as Bay Area parks, beaches and pleasant weather over the weekend lured thousands out of their homes.
“Extremely busy” was how East Bay Regional Parks General Manager Bob Doyle described the area’s park system. Other park officials reported similar spikes.
The number of people going out could threaten the state with another spike in cases and deaths. Some of the most vulnerable people out there today are grocery store workers still going to work after being declared essential workers.
But the response to the virus has been a transition that one grocery store worker from San Jose said she could have never expected and was not prepared for. This news organization sat down with Silicon Valley grocery workers to talk about how they have adapted to a new normal.
