California Daily Coronavirus Case Average Up 295 Percent In One Month

A coronavirus testing site Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock

The 14-day average of daily new coronavirus cases in California has broken 8,000 for the first time since the pandemic began. By comparison, one month ago that average was 2,704. That’s a 295 percent increase in 30 days.

The rise is a result of both a steep increase in cases and what have now become regular, near-record spikes in the past 10 days. On July 7, the state saw an all-time high of 11,694 new cases. That was followed by spikes of 11,126 on 7/14 and 8,544 today.

COVID-related deaths in California are also spiking. Thursday’s number of new deaths, 118, is the third-highest total California has seen since the virus hit the state. The two higher results have come in the past week, with 140 yesterday and the all-time high reported last Thursday with 149 lives lost. The previous peak had been 115 deaths.

California now has 356,178 confirmed cases of COVID-19, resulting in 7,345 deaths. The number of COVID-19 diagnostic test results in California reached a total of 5,915,508, an increase of 122,232 tests in the past 24 hours. The rate of positive tests over the last 14 days is 7.2 percent. California’s hospitalizations due to COVID-19 decreased by 9 from Tuesday.

That last is a bit of good news, since Los Angeles County reported a record number of hospitalizations on Monday.

Also on Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered all counties to close their restaurants, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, wineries and zoos for indoor service. Bars were ordered to close entirely.

Additionally, L.A. and 31 other counties on the state’s monitoring list must close fitness centers, places of worship, nail and hair salons and indoor malls. L.A.-adjacent counties impacted include Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Diego, Orange and virtually every other county in Southern California.

The Los Angeles County Public Health Director said on Wednesday that “nothing is off the table” in terms of closures, while Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Monday that the city’s COVID-19 threat meter is “on the border of going to red,” the highest level, which would mean a complete shutdown of L.A.