California is starting to see a decline in COVID-19 cases after spending much of the last few months as an epicenter for the virus, according to California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly.
What’s going on?
Ghaley said during a videoconference call that the number of hospitalizations — which reached 20,263 on Tuesday — represents an 8.5% drop from the past two weeks, according to KCRA.
- ICU Hospitalizations are down 2.8% over the last two weeks, too, he said.
- Positive test results dropped from 11.6% the past two weeks despite being 12.7% in January.
Ghaley said California public health officials haven’t seen as big of a spike from Christmas and New Year’s as they thought, according to KCRA.
New variant
California has become an epicenter for the coronavirus in recent weeks. A new study — which has not been peer-reviewed — suggests that the recent spike might be due to a new strain developing in the area.
- The study said that more than one-third of the recent COVID-19 patients were infected with another new strain of COVID-19 in California.
- This new strain — known as CAL.20C — was found in 36% of all virus samples from Cedars-Sinai patients and 24% of all samples in Southern California, according to CBS News.