The Bay Area is experiencing the most substantial uptick in COVID-19 cases amid the latest surge hitting the state.
Dr. Erica Pan, the state epidemiologist, told doctors
in an online event
this week that the California Department of Public Health is tracking several indicators that point to the worsening trends, including the positive test rate, hospitalizations and wastewater samples from dozens of sewer sheds.
The latter, one of the most reliable forms of surveillance since it is not dependent on
individual testing, shows a high level of
coronavirus
circulating across Northern California.
“The Bay Area is where we’re seeing the strongest increases,” Pan said. “Some of the levels in these sheds are actually higher than during the omicron peak.”
The daily number of newly reported cases statewide pushed up to 8,669 on Thursday, a 32% rise from a month earlier and up 11% from a week ago, according to
health department data. That translates to about 23 new daily cases per 100,000 residents statewide, while the Bay Area is reporting 30 per 100,000.
New hospital admissions of patients with confirmed COVID-19 statewide rose to 4,508, up 121% from a month ago and 3% in a week. Hospitalizations are nearing the peak of 4,826 reported during the summer BA.5 omicron wave in July, with 82% of the state’s
inpatient beds currently in use.
California’s seven-day rolling coronavirus test positivity rate, which tracks the percentage of lab test results that are positive for COVID-19, is just over 11% — flat with last week but more than double what it was in the first week of November.
Half the state’s population, including the entire Bay Area, now has “medium”
COVID-19 community levels, based on metrics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In that tier, masking is required in certain high-risk settings such as prisons and shelters, per California Department of Public Health guidance.
But Pan said officials are encouraging everyone to “go ahead and mask again indoors and crowded settings” — not just for COVID but also because of
an influx of flu and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus.
In their first joint message in months,
a dozen Bay Area health officials on Thursday warned
that the high levels of circulating viruses are straining the region’s health care systems.
Echoing Pan’s message, they also
urged people to mask indoors
alongside getting vaccinated, staying home when sick and testing before gathering.
“Masks can prevent transmission of COVID, flu, RSV, and other respiratory viruses all at once,” wrote the health officers from the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano, Sonoma and the city of Berkeley.
They specified that individuals should wear a high-quality mask, such as a KN94, KN95 or N95.
“Masking is strongly recommended indoors in public settings to prevent the spread of viruses and reduce the risk of illness,” the joint statement said. “Masks also lower the likelihood that you pass on an infection if you are already sick, even if your symptoms are mild.”
About 9% of the state’s total inpatient hospitalizations are currently for COVID-19 patients, Pan said. Once that figure reaches 10%, it will trigger additional measures. “This is similar to what we saw last winter during our omicron surge,” she said. “Hospitals are really stretched.”
New coronavirus cases are up across 90% of the country, White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said Thursday
during a briefing.
Deaths and hospitalizations are also on the rise in the U.S., with nearly 3,000 deaths reported last week. Most of those have been concentrated in people aged 65 and older, Jha said.
“We have seen COVID cases go up. We have hospitalizations go up,” he told reporters. “Deaths are just starting to rise. We obviously want to make sure that does not go any further.”
Pan said that uptake of the bivalent boosters remains dismal in California. Among the state’s highest-risk individuals, only 22% of people over 50 have gotten the new shots and 37% of those over 65.
“We are sadly much lower than we would like to be for the state right now,” Pan said, lamenting that “this virus really finds our most vulnerable.”
She also confirmed that the state has changed its approach to making therapies such as the antiviral Paxlovid available to anyone who tests positive for the virus.
“Providers should have a low threshold to treat,” Pan told the state’s physicians. “The default should be to prescribe.”
Aidin Vaziri is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com