Coronavirus updates: California reaches 11,000 dead as pandemic, Yolo County cases top 2,000

The weekend is off to a uniquely miserable start for many throughout California as the coronavirus pandemic and its related, unprecedented restrictions on businesses and gathering places combine with a major heatwave that’s forced rolling blackouts Friday, the likes of which haven’t been implemented in nearly two decades.

As for the pandemic, the state on Saturday morning officially surpassed 11,000 total deaths from COVID-19, according to an update from the California Department of Public Health. The day’s addition of 151 fatalities brought the all-time toll to 11,147.

Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested Friday the state was nearly finished sorting through a backlog of COVID-19 test results that had piled up due to a system error in late July, and there were some glimpses of good news even as the state officially crossed the 600,000-case milestone in that day’s update. California, the nation’s most populous at nearly 40 million residents, became the first state to reach that mark.

Newsom said that of the 7,900 lab-confirmed cases added Friday, about 4,400 were from the backlog and just 3,505 were truly “new.” The latter figure, if accurate, would be the lowest single-day increase since mid-June, when the state first started observing a surge in COVID-19 activity that led Newsom and the state to tighten back up social distancing protocols in early July, ordering numerous types of indoor businesses to shut back down.

But then, Saturday morning brought the second-highest daily infection increase to date: More than 12,600 new cases poured into the system, pushing the pandemic’s total past 613,000. It’s not yet clear how many, if any, of those cases are from the backlog.

Hospitalization rates for the virus appear to continue on a significant decline, though, down about 20% in the last two weeks, Newsom said in a Friday news conference. The raw number of patients hospitalized statewide with confirmed COVID-19 cases has declined from about 7,200 in late July to below 5,200 as of Friday and almost as low as 5,100 by Saturday. ICU numbers have fallen from over 2,000 to below 1,650 in a little over three weeks.

But deaths, which can follow behind new infections and hospitalizations in the data by a few weeks due to the time it takes for the most severe cases of the respiratory disease to become fatal, continue to climb quickly.

The state’s 14-day rolling average for new fatalities reached 142 a day with Friday’s addition of 188 deaths, according to CDPH. That’s the highest death rate recorded during the pandemic, with the pace of fatalities continuing a steady climb that started in early July after staying mostly stable from late April to late June.

Separately, California is ensconced in a severe mid-August heat wave that kicked into gear Friday and will extend well into next week, pushing high temperatures in the Central Valley near 110 degrees multiple days.

Public places that’d normally be an air-conditioned respite from that heat — movie theaters, shopping malls, libraries and more — have been closed due to the pandemic for weeks or months, leaving more residents than usual stuck at home blasting their own A/C.

With energy use skyrocketing as temperatures reached above 100 on Friday evening, the California Independent System Operator first issued a Flex Alert asking residents to limit energy use from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., but still had to declared a statewide energy emergency.

After ramping up operation alerts through the day, around 6:30 p.m. the ISO reached Stage 3, and for the first time since 2001, Cal ISO ordered utilities including Pacific Gas & Electric in Northern California to implement rolling blackouts.

The deliberate outages, including in El Dorado County, affected roughly 350,000 homes and businesses across the state before the order was rescinded around 9 p.m.

Latest Sacramento-area coronavirus numbers: 285 dead

The six-county region of Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, Sutter and Yuba counties has reported 285 combined coronavirus deaths. The region on Thursday morning surpassed 20,000 confirmed cases for the course of the pandemic.

Sacramento County has now tallied 13,615 confirmed infections, disclosing 738 cases Thursday and another 399 Friday.

At least 199 Sacramento County residents have died, the county reports: 131 from the city of Sacramento, 11 from Elk Grove, 11 from Citrus Heights, seven from Rancho Cordova, six from Galt, four from Folsom and 29 in unincorporated territories.

State data show 249 COVID-19 patients in Sacramento County hospitals as of Saturday morning, with that number having plateaued for a little more than a week. The county’s all-time high was 281, on July 30. ICU cases dipped by two in the day’s update from Friday, back down to 85. The state says 95 ICU beds remain available in Sacramento County.

Placer County has reported 2,582 cases and 28 deaths, disclosing one death Saturday after after reporting a fatality on Friday and two each on Tuesday and Wednesday. Placer added 39 infections to its count Saturday and 57 more Friday.

The county says 58 patients in Placer County hospitals are being treated for COVID-19, 14 of them in the ICU. The hospitalized total increased by eight but the ICU total increased by two since Friday’s update.

Yolo County on Saturday reported 58 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths due to the virus. The county reported a record-high 75 new cases Monday due to a backlog, and it broke 2,000 cases with a total of 2,019 cases and 46 deaths. The county reported one death each on Friday and Sunday. Four infected people in the county were hospitalized Saturday, two of them in intensive care, according to state data. The county had only four ICU beds available Saturday.

El Dorado County reported 25 new COVID-19 cases Friday, bringing its total to 827 cases and no new deaths. The county added nine new cases to its total Thursday. The county reported its second death from COVID-19 on Monday. Two infected people were hospitalized in the county Friday; both of them in intensive care. The county remains the capital region’s only one not placed onto the state’s coronavirus watchlist, reflecting its relatively low case total, but changes to the watchlist have been frozen until the state’s backlog issue is fully resolved.

In Sutter County, a total 1,091 COVID-19 cases and seven deaths have been reported through Friday afternoon. The county reported 21 new cases Friday and 30 new cases Thursday. Sutter hospitals on Friday were caring for 14 infected with the virus, with three in the ICU.

Yuba County has reported a total of 740 cases and four deaths as of Friday afternoon. The county reported 13 new cases Friday. Eleven people were hospitalized in Yuba County Friday, including three in intensive care.

Nevada County has reported its second death due to COVID-19, the county reported on its dashboard Friday. The person who died was an elderly resident who recently became ill with the virus, but the death was not associated with a skilled nursing facility or assisted living facility, The Union newspaper in Grass Valley reported. As of Friday afternoon, Nevada County public health officials had reported a total of 372 cases. Three infected people in the county were in hospitals Friday.

World numbers: Over 767,000 dead, nearly 170,000 in US

Over 21 million lab-confirmed cases of the coronavirus have been reported worldwide and over 767,000 people have died as of early Friday afternoon, with the United States leading the globe in both figures at more than 5.32 million infections and nearly 169,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Brazil is next in terms of death toll, recently surpassing 106,000. After that are Mexico with over 55,000, India at over 49,000, the United Kingdom at almost 47,000, previous European epicenter Italy holding steady at just over 35,000, France at over 30,000, Spain at a little over 28,500 and more than 25,000 in Peru.

The long list of countries with five-digit death tolls continues with nearly 19,000 dead in Iran, over 15,000 in Russia, 14,000 in Colombia, over 11,500 in South Africa and more than 10,000 in Chile. Belgium will join that group soon, recently surpassing 9,900 fatalities, and Germany and Canada have each recorded more than 9,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins.

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 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 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 people 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.

The Bee’s Rosalio Ahumada, Maria Heeter, Daniel Hunt and Dale Kasler contributed to this story.