Just one Bay Area county — Alameda — was among the 10 largest gainers of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in California on Wednesday, while the region accounted for 7% new cases statewide.
The growth in cases — more than 2,000 tested positive across the state Wednesday, raising the total close to 73,000, according to data compiled by this news organization — continues to be centered in Southern California, where five counties accounted for 80% of the state’s new cases Wednesday and nearly that many of its 95 new fatalities.
Just six other days have been deadlier than Wednesday since the outbreak began. The state’s death toll closed in on another grim milestone as it rose to 2,969. But the 10-county Bay Area added only six to its death toll, which grew to 376. In Los Angeles County, the death toll rose to 1,646, an increase of 46 from the previous day, while San Bernardino County reported its most days in a single day since the onset of the outbreak (18). No Bay Area county reported more than two new fatalities from the virus.
Hospitalizations remained flat across the Bay Area, with 270 patients in hospital beds who have tested positive for the virus, despite growing slightly statewide, to 3,301.
Another Southern California county experienced a surge in cases Wednesday: Imperial, the small farming county on the southern border, reported 83 new cases, its most since the virus began to spread. With 647 confirmed cases and a population of about 180,000, it has the highest per-capita infection rate of any county in California.
In the Bay Area, the highest have been in San Francisco and San Mateo counties, with per-capita rates about two-thirds that of Imperial (337.6 per 100,000 residents) and Los Angeles (335.6 per 100,000). But each plans to loosen its shelter-in-place restrictions next week to fall in line with Phase 2 of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s reopening plan. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said 95% of the city’s retail businesses would be able to open for delivery and curbside pickup.Alameda County, which reported 45 new cases Wednesday, the most in the Bay Area, said it too planned to “allow additional approved activities for local businesses” beginning Monday.
As of Thursday morning, 18 mostly rural counties had been approved to go beyond the initial stage of Phase 2, permitting in-person dining and retail shopping: Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Lassen, Mariposa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Benito, Shasta, Sierra, Sutter, Tehama, Tuolumne and Yuba.
