One Region Of California Emerges As State’s Covid Hotspot: “We’ve Got A Lot Of Virus Circulating Now. And It’s On Its Way Up”

“We’ve received a whole lot of virus circulating now. And it’s on its approach up,” stated Santa Clara County Well being Officer Dr. Sara Cody at a press briefing earlier this week.

Whereas case numbers are going up throughout the state, one area’s transmission ranges are a lot larger than the remaining: The Bay Space. The CDC’s color-coded “County Tracker” device signifies that, whereas the remainder of the state is on the inexperienced or “Low” degree of transmission, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Marin, San Mateo and San Francisco Counties have all moved into the yellow, or “Medium” degree of neighborhood unfold. See map beneath.

In contrast, the state’s largest metropolis remains to be within the inexperienced, in keeping with the CDC. Native well being officers report that circumstances are rising in Los Angeles, from 2,484 final Wednesday to 2,997 right now, a bounce of 20% up to now week, however not almost so quick as they’re within the Bay Space. The 7-day common variety of day by day new circumstances reported in L.A. elevated to 2,532 right now.

Whereas knowledge for San Francisco County circumstances in incomplete for the previous few days, the 7-day common of recent circumstances, final up to date every week in the past on the county Covid dashboard, was already about even with the excessive level of final summer time’s Delta wave at 283 final week vs. 311 on August 2.

The foremost distinction between the Bay Space and L.A. — by way of downstream impression and impression on the county’s CDC raking — is hospitalizations. Whereas hospitalizations of residents with Covid have solely crept up about 1.5% in Los Angeles up to now week, that metric in San Francisco County over the previous seven days have jumped 20%.

San Francisco now has a median of 40 new day by day circumstances per 100,000 residents, in keeping with the San Francisco Chronicle. That’s the second-highest price within the state, behind solely Santa Cruz County, which is at 43 per 100,000.

Check positivity charges present an identical divide. In L.A., the 7-day common take a look at positivity price of two.5% is definitely beneath that of the state-at-large, which is available in at 4.1%. Distinction that with the Bay Space counties: San Mateo at 6.4%, San Francisco at 9% and Marin at 9.1%.

Among the many elements driving circumstances and hospitalizations is the rise of Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1, regarded as 25% extra transmissible than Omicron BA.2. The variant started on the East Coast and has slowly risen within the West. It accounts for absolutely 66% of circumstances within the three-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the place it’s also driving a surge in hospitalizations.

In California, BA.2.12.1 — and sister lineage BA.2.12.2 — remains to be solely accountable for 15% of recent circumstances. Los Angeles County officers say that, for the week ending April 16, BA.2.12.1 accounts for simply 8% of constructive sequenced specimens. Whereas numbers will not be available for the Bay Space, it’s an excellent wager the prevalence of BA.2.12.1 is way, a lot larger.