There were 4,230 new cases on Sunday and 5,019 on Monday. Thirty-five percent of the state’s positive cases of the virus have occurred in the past two weeks.
More Californias are also contracting COVID-19 than ever before. At a Wednesday briefing, Newsom said the positivity rate in California has also gone up to 5.1 percent, meaning the spike in confirmed cases is not only the result of expanded testing. A week ago only 4.6 percent of tests were coming back positive.
“Each decimal point is profoundly impactful,” Newsom said.
The 40 percent spike in the last 24 hours represents the highest number of new cases California has reported in a single day since the beginning of the new coronavirus pandemic.
Hospitalization rates are also on the rise in the state. In the past two weeks, the number of hospitalized patients went up 29 percent while admissions to the intensive care unit increased 18 percent. Newsom has reassured hospitals still have enough resources such as hospital beds and ventilators to treat the influx of patients.
The numerous upticks in California’s coronavirus figures come two days after the governor said he was prepared to revert back to more stringent restrictions and “reel back” on some of the state’s reopenings.
“We don’t intend to do that, we don’t want to do that, but I want to make this clear—we are prepared to do that if we must,” Newsom said at a conference on Monday. “Clearly we have the capacity, individual and collective capacity, not to have to go in that direction by just being a little bit more thoughtful about how we go about our day-to-day lives.”
The governor recommended residents be “a little more thoughtful about how we go about our day-to-day lives,” as he encouraged Californians to wear face coverings, wash their hands and practice social distancing.
“We are putting people’s lives at risk,” the governor warned on Wednesday.
Some county officials have rejected Newsom’s recent statewide face mask order. Sacramento’s County sheriff released a statement last week saying they would not enforce the new requirement.
Newsom threatened to cut off access to state funding if cases surge in those areas. He said the state would evaluate the positivity ratings of each counties on a monthly basis.
While the Golden State was the first in the country to tell all residents to stay home in an effort to control the outbreak, Newsom began easing restrictions on May 8 after pressure from local officials. California’s reopening plan was rapidly ramped up after counties were given the power to resume businesses at their own pace after meeting Newsom’s six benchmarks.
California has reported a total of 191,326 confirmed cases and 5,626 deaths.
