California recorded at least 2,000 new coronavirus cases for the 17th consecutive day Tuesday as the state topped 136,000 total cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
With 90 new deaths announced Tuesday — including 11 in the Bay Area — the state death toll reached 4,746.
After data compiled by this news organization revealed 2,946 new cases in California Tuesday, the seven-day new coronavirus case average reached a new peak at 2,785.86, which surpasses the previous high set Sunday at 2,702.43.
A continued rise in cases coincides with the decisions of individual counties around California to move further into Phase 2 of reopening their local economies. On Friday, counties that file attestation forms proving they are equipped to handle a surge in cases and have mitigation efforts in place to reduce transmission of COVID-19 will be permitted to move in Phase 3.
After visiting with community leaders in Oakland Tuesday for a discussion on racism, systemic injustices and police reforms, Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke with a pool reporter to address the state’s continued response to the coronavirus pandemic and said California is better prepared to handle the spread of COVID-19 than it was when a statewide shelter-in-place order was implemented March 19.
“As we phase in, in a responsible way, a reopening of the economy, we’ve made it abundantly clear that we anticipate an increase in the total number of positive cases,” Newsom said. “But we also made it abundantly clear that the concurrent recognition and commitment that we are in a substantially different place than we were 90 days ago. We have hundreds of millions of masks now in our possession.”
Newsom explained the state has increased its testing capacity and California is now conducting an average of more than 60,000 tests per day. This comes two months after Newsom said the state only had the ability to test 2,000 people per day.
With an increase in testing, state officials and local health officers are now closely monitoring the rate of positive tests.
“Every morning we look at positivity rates,” Newsom said. “They have been within a margin of error over seven-day positivity rates at 4.4%. The 14-day positivity rate is at 4.7%. Three weeks ago it was about 4.5%, 4.6%, so we’re in the margins. I think as we have a phased-in approach, we put out guidelines that say this is how you do it, but we don’t say when you do it.”
Newsom said the hospitalization rate has increased slightly in the state, but indicated it is not yet a cause for concern.
If there’s a significant spike in cases and the positivity rate begins to increase, the governor said the state has had ample time to prepare for a rise in the number of hospitalizations.
“We have alternative care facility that are ready to go, identified, the sites have the equipment pre-positioned, these assets,” Newsom said. “We have a hospital plan that has a surge capacity of up to 50,000. We have 11,000 ventilators today.”
