Coronavirus updates: California reaches 200,000 cases; agriculture losing billions
The Golden State reached another grim milestone in the coronavirus pandemic on Friday: 200,000 people have now tested positive.
California surpassed that mark with an increase of 4,890 new lab-confirmed cases, according to data updated by the state Department of Public Health on Friday, ending a streak of three straight days with more than 5,000 new cases, but still representing the fourth-highest daily figure since the start of the health crisis. The state death count increased by 79 in Friday’s update for a total of 5,812.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday advised Imperial County to reverse some of its reopenings and reimplement stricter stay-at-home protocols due to high positive test rates and hospitals becoming overwhelmed there. According to a new state data webpage, a federal medical station set up as a surge site in Imperial County had 17 of its 108 beds filled with patients as of Friday, and was California’s only county with more than 2 percent of its surge beds in use as of that time.
Newsom has not yet announced any plans for the rest of the state to roll back the phased economic reopening that has taken place over the past few weeks, though he reminded this week that the state reserves the right to do so if virus activity continues to increase at a concerning rate.
“We have the capacity and ability to toggle back in terms of the stay-at-home order and the guidance that we put out,” Newsom said in news briefing a day earlier, on Thursday.
Hospitalization and intensive care unit rates have also spiked quickly to all-time highs. The number of patients with confirmed cases in California hospitals has soared from about 3,100 on June 14 to 4,380 by Friday, less than two weeks later. Of those, 1,364 are in the ICU, according to the state’s COVID-19 hospital data dashboard.
The recent surge comes after new cases, hospitalization rates and ICU totals had remained relatively stable from late April through early June. Death increases have also remained mostly stable, though Thursday’s 101 fatalities were the most reported since June 10.
Still, Newsom said in daily news briefings Thursday and earlier in the week, the state’s hospitals and ICUs are not yet in immediate danger of hitting maximum capacities.
On March 19, Newsom issued a mandatory stay-at-home order in an effort to curb the spread of the virus and flatten the pandemic’s growth curve to ensure hospital systems are not overwhelmed by an influx of cases. The order effectively shut down all businesses not considered essential, which shot unemployment figures to record highs.
Many of those restrictions have been loosened across most of California’s counties — starting in May with things like dine-in restaurants and shopping malls reopening, and continuing late last week with permission for personal services like nail salons and tattoo parlors to resume business. The state and counties have issued rules and guidelines for those activities and all others allowed to return, requiring social distancing protocols.
Then on June 18, Newsom ordered mask use mandatory in most indoor public or shared settings in an effort to further cut down transmission of the virus.
Newsom, along with state health leaders and top local health officials in the capital region, said this week that contact tracing investigations appear to show that recent, large clusters of cases are being linked to birthday parties, graduation celebrations and other private, in-home gatherings rather than reopening bars or restaurants.
Friends and extended family members are spreading the virus among each other at these events, which remain prohibited under state and county health orders and in which guests have become too lax about social distancing and mask requirements, Sacramento and Yolo counties’ health officers said earlier this week.
Sacramento County’s coronavirus activity rose at an alarming enough rate to land it back on the state’s “watch” list, a fluctuating group of counties that the state health department says it is monitoring that includes 15 of California’s 58 counties as of Friday morning. The state keeps track of metrics for COVID-19 growth and adds counties if they exceed certain thresholds.
For Sacramento County, increased hospitalizations are the current chief concern. Per the state’s data dashboard, the county had 73 coronavirus patients in hospital beds as of Thursday, more than double the 34 hospitalized eight days earlier. On May 27, just eight were hospitalized countywide, state data show.
New COVID-19 hospital cases put Sacramento back on state ‘watch list’ as July 4 looms
Sacramento reports more than 150 new cases; 11th death in Placer
Health officials in Sacramento County added 154 new lab-positive COVID-19 cases in a Friday morning update, the highest of any day since the pandemic began. It broke a record of 131 set this Tuesday. Before that, the county had not reported any triple-digit increases.
Sacramento County reports 2,666 total cases since the pandemic began. Of those, 66 have resulted in deaths. Another 1,552 have been termed “likely recovered” on the county’s online data dashboard for the pandemic. This suggests that more than 1,000 cases can be considered active across the county.
The city of Sacramento, which is home to about 500,000 of the county’s roughly 1.5 million residents, accounted for more than 1,500 of the county’s infections as of Friday morning.
Neighboring Placer County, in a Friday morning update, reported its second death this week after going a month without any coronavirus fatalities. The county’s 11th death involved a person age 65 or older. Another person between ages 50 and 64 died Sunday, the county reported Monday, the second death in that age group.
State agriculture industry will suffer billions in losses
California farms, ranches and agricultural businesses have suffered $2 billion in losses due to disrupted markets and rising production costs related to the COVID-19 outbreak, according to a new study from Davis-based ERA Economics.
That number is expected to be between $5.9 billion and $8.6 billion for the year, the study said.
Analysts looked at 15 different agricultural sectors, using data on production, exports and prices through early May, plus interviews and surveys of people and businesses.
Farms, ranches and related businesses have seen higher operating costs associated with employee health and safety and the logistics required to move crops and commodities to market.
Abrupt shifts in purchasing patterns — prompted by the constriction in restaurant and other food-service sales and a swing to retail purchases for at-home use — have also affected farmers, ranchers and agricultural businesses at various points in the supply chain, resulting in farm-gate crop price impacts.
Some crops like rice, processed tomato products and canned fruit, have seen increased business, but “the losses far outweigh the isolated benefits,” the study said.
The full report can be read at unitedag.org.
Unemployment benefits extended in state budget
The budget deal reached earlier this week between Newsom and legislative leaders, expected to be signed into law before the July 1 start of the next fiscal year, authorizes seven additional weeks of federally funded emergency unemployment benefits if California’s jobless rate remains above a certain level.
That level is a rolling three-month average of 8 percent unemployment, as determined by the U.S. Department of Labor, as well as a few other criteria.
Due to COVID-19-related job losses, state unemployment appears well on track to stay over 8 percent, reaching 16.4 percent in April and 16.3 percent in May.
California residents are eligible for up to $450 a week in benefits, and until late July, they can also receive an extra $600 weekly.
So far, California’s Employment Development Department has processed 6.3 million claims and paid out $30.3 billion.
Anti-vaccine activists continue protesting California health orders
As researchers race worldwide to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, anti-vaccine groups have been among the loudest groups in California rallying against orders like Newsom’s stay-at-home directive and the state’s recent mask mandate, framing these requirements in some instances as “tyranny.”
Vaccines typically take multiple years of trials and research to develop and distribute to the masses, but the Trump administration has called for a streamlined process to develop a coronavirus vaccine through an initiative called “Operation Warp Speed.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert who has helped navigate the United States through the pandemic, said this week he was “cautiously optimistic” that it might be possible to safely meet a goal of 300 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by early 2021.
That aggressive timeline could further advance the pushback from anti-vaccine coalitions. While more than 70 percent of Californians surveyed last September in a Public Policy Institute poll were in favor of mandatory vaccinations for children, support for vaccinations in the U.S. dropped from 94 percent in 2001 to 84 percent last year, according to a Gallup survey in December.
Groups including the Freedom Angels, V is for Vaccine and Stop Mandatory Vaccination have launched social media campaigns or rallied at the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento to protest against coronavirus health protocols and the not-yet-developed vaccine. The Freedom Angels have denounced Newsom’s mask mandate and told their followers not to comply.
“No masks. No vaccines. No taking my freedom. No new normal,” the coalition posted to Facebook on June 18.
Leah Russin, founder of pro-vaccine and parental advocacy group Vaccinate California, expressed concern that “political manipulation” of the state’s public health guidelines have picked up momentum due to “obvious, concerning conspiracy theories that are sadly gaining traction that are not helpful.”
Russin has worked for years to get immunization laws written by state Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, passed. Senate Bill 277 four years ago eliminated personal beliefs from the list of reasons school kids can skip their shots, and SB 276 last year increased oversight of doctors issuing high numbers of medical exemptions for students.
“One of the things that the coronavirus should be teaching us is that we have been fortunate for around 100 years, between vaccines and antibiotics, we haven’t really had to worry about infectious diseases as much,” Pan said.
Latest in Sacramento area: Cases spiking across most of region
The four-county capital region has recorded more than 3,500 total coronavirus infections and 101 deaths as of Friday morning. Sacramento County surpassed the 2,500 case milestone on Thursday and added a record 154 Friday, while El Dorado, Yolo and Placer counties combine for more than 1,000 infections.
Placer County health officials report a total of 593 people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 11 of them have died, with figures last updated Friday morning. The county reported 14 new infections Friday after disclosing 23 infections Thursday and 22 Wednesday. Seven people are hospitalized, three of them in the ICU.
Placer reported a new death Friday, after Monday reporting its first coronavirus death since May 22.
For the fourth consecutive day, Yolo County reported single-day records in cases, but no deaths, on Thursday. The 30 confirmed infections on Friday outmatched the 22 reported the day before. Those figures surpassed the 20 cases reported Wednesday and 19 cases Tuesday. Yolo County’s previous high was 17 confirmations Monday and April 6.
A total of 438 coronavirus infections have been confirmed in the county and 24 people have died. Of those deaths, 17 have been connected to an outbreak at Stollwood Convalescent Hospital in Woodland.
El Dorado County on Thursday afternoon reported five new COVID-19 cases, bringing its total to 158 cases and no deaths related to the virus. Slightly more than half those cases, 80, stem from the Lake Tahoe area. The county on Monday reported 15 new cases from over the weekend and three new cases on Wednesday.
Just outside of the four-county capital region, Sutter County health officials reported 13 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday for a total of 140 people infected and three dead from the virus. Sutter County reported six new cases on Monday, seven new cases on Tuesday and two new cases on Wednesday. Yuba County reported two new COVID-19 cases Thursday and has a total of 51 infections and one person dead from the virus. Yuba County reported six new cases on Wednesday. While the numbers in these counties remain small, infection rates have been increasing.
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Nearly 125,000 dead across U.S., world death toll at 490,000
The global infection total for COVID-19 has surpassed 9.6 million, and more than 490,000 people have died from the disease, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The United States accounts for more than 124,000 of those deaths and 2.4 million lab-positive cases, according to the Johns Hopkins data dashboard. Brazil’s outbreak has been the next most severe, with 55,000 dead and over 1.2 million cases so far.
Those two countries are followed by the United Kingdom at 43,000 deaths, Italy at just under 35,000, France at almost 30,000, Spain at 28,000 and Mexico at just over 25,000 dead.
What is COVID-19? How is the coronavirus spread?
Coronavirus is spread through contact between people within 6 feet of each other, especially through coughing and sneezing that expels respiratory droplets that land in the mouths or noses of people nearby. The CDC says it’s possible to catch the disease COVID-19 by touching something that has the virus on it, and then touching your own face, “but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
Symptoms of the virus that causes COVID-19 include fever, cough and shortness of breath, which may occur two days to two weeks after exposure. Most develop only mild symptoms, but some people develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal. The disease is especially dangerous to the elderly and others with weaker immune systems.
Sacramento Bee reporters Rosalio Ahumada, Tony Bizjak, Sophia Bollag and Hannah Wiley; Fresno Bee reporter Joshua Tehee; and McClatchyDC reporter David Lightman contributed to this report. Listen to our daily briefing:
