California has seen a 38%Â decrease in its COVID-19 positivity rate over the last two weeks, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said Tuesday.
The drop in the14-day rolling average of new daily cases is also steep. Ghaly, in his weekly COVID-19 briefing, said the drop in cases have provided cause for hope.
“We haven’t seen a number like this in quite some time,” he said. “It’s a positive sign in transmission across the state.”
The positivity rate since widespread testing became available hit a low of 2.5 % on Oct. 18 before it began to tick up then trend sharply higher after Thanksgiving, hitting a peak of 14% on Jan. 8. The rate indicates the percentage of results that come back positive for the coronavirus out of all the people who are tested.
Should the trend continue, state projections show that by March 4 California hospitalizations for COVID-19 could be cut more than half, from over 14,000 to about 6,500.
Ghaly also announced that Trinity and Alpine counties will graduate from the state’s red tier, indicating “substantial” coronavirus transmission risk, to the orange, or “moderate” risk category.
Urging people to stay safe during the upcoming Super Bowl, he said the pandemic is in the “fourth quarter” but masks and social distancing are still required.
“Don’t fumble this,” he said. We’re almost there, let’s keep our guard up a little bit longer.”
You can follow California’s coronavirus metrics on the state’s data dashboard.
âJoe Fitzgerald Rodriguez and Jon Brooks
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