Alameda County health officials on Thursday added three more casualties to their death toll from COVID-19, the third straight day that list has grown in the county.
Santa Clara County also saw two more deaths in Santa Clara County. The deaths were the only ones added in the region in updates provided by different counties before 4 p.m.
Alameda’s three additional deaths came along with 56 more confirmed cases of the coronavirus that were diagnosed. Alameda County has seen an average of 45.2 new cases per day over the past week and added 12 new deaths.
Other counties showed more encouraging trends. San Mateo County added 21 cases Thursday, Santa Clara County added 10 more, and both Contra Costa County and San Francisco had only single-digit increases. For San Francisco, it was their first day in two weeks with less than 10 cases.
Santa Clara County has recoreded 134 deaths and Alameda County 79, the top two totals among the 10 Bay Area counties. Santa Clara County’s 2,391 cases and Alameda County’s 2,234 also were 1-2 and make up about 44% of all the cases in the 10 counties.
San Francisco remains one case shy of 2,000 after adding five to its list — four shy the number added by Contra Costa County health officials. Contra Costa County has confirmed 1,089 cases since the pandemic began.
More good news in both places: San Francisco had only 65 patients hospitalized with the virus on Tuesday, its most recent day with data — its lowest numbers since March 31. In Contra Costa County, only 17 people were hospitalized, one fewer than the average of the past seven days.
Contra Costa County health officials have administered 20,606 tests.
Santa Clara County reported 16 fewer people in the hospital on Thursday, and they had all but four of their 1,231 beds available in case of a surge of cases. The county has conducted 45,113 tests, and about 5% of them have turned out positive.
San Francisco crossed a testing milestone, receiving its 40,000th result on Wednesday. It has dramatically increased capacity in recent weeks and is testing its residents at nearly twice the clip of surrounding counties. It has performed more than 20,703 tests the past two weeks, with about 3.5% coming back positive, compared to 9,945 tests the previous 14-day period with a 7.6% positive rate.
San Mateo County’s 21 new cases brought its total number to 1,536 since the pandemic started. The county also reported 14 new COVID-19 patients in its hospitals on Tuesday, bringing the total number to 63, including 20 in intensive care units, three more than the previous day.
Both peninsula counties announced plans to fall in line with the state’s Phase 2 guidelines beginning Monday. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said 95% of the city’s retail businesses would be able to resume curbside operation.
Eighteen more counties around the state had been approved to open even further, as the death toll from the virus approached 3,000 and total cases topped 73,000.
