California sees positive decline in COVID-19 heading into the holidays.
After an annoying uptrend last month, the Bay Area County has seen signs of improvement toward the holidays across the state, despite lower rates of COVID-19 infection and worsening outbreaks. in all the country. They will be.
Governor Gavin Newsom visited the San Francisco Vaccine Clinic on Monday to highlight progress in encouraging more people to get vaccinated. But he is also wary of the fact that infectious diseases continue to rise across the country, as well as in Europe, as well as in the upper Midwest and Northeast, suggesting an increase in the coming winter. I did.
“A few weeks ago, we saw some unpleasant signs, such as increasing case rates, increasing positive rates, increasing hospitalizations and ICUs,” Newsam said. “But in the last 10 or 11 days, we have seen some stability. Some good signs. That’s good news.”
According to Newsam, California currently has the lowest positive virus test rate in the United States, with the effective pathogen breeding rate dropping to 0.91. Numbers less than 1 indicate that it is not spreading.
California ended high levels of red virus transmission at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday. Currently, it is the only state outside the Southeast with substantial levels of orange infection, with higher infection rates in other parts of the country.
Other Bay Area counties joined San Francisco with a moderate level of yellow virus infection at the CDC after getting caught in orange earlier this month.
“We are declining,” Newsom said. “It is encouraging. We’re starting to see ICU hospitalizations and declines again, and we’re seeing some stability in case rates. ”
Newsom acknowledged that the state has changed with the willingness of many residents to wear face coverings to reduce the spread of the virus and obtain vaccinations and boosters.
“This is due to the good work they have done over the months to cover the virus and exceed the potential of this winter and its rise,” Newsom said. “So we are here to celebrate such success, but calmly and humbly, and the importance of keeping watch on people, the importance of covering your face, the effectiveness of these life savings. A vaccine that reminds us of the importance of continuing to promote sex and safety.”
Newsam also said that case rates have increased by more than 10% last week in 27 states. The CDC reported Friday that the level of community transmission of the virus in the United States remained high, with an average of seven days of new cases daily increasing 16.1% from the previous week.
Health experts say that weather conditions are more favorable for their survival, and colder weather can attract more people indoors and spread the virus in close contact with other people in poorly ventilated areas. Due to its high price, we believe that the virus is easily transmitted in winter.
The new increase in national incidents is entering a complex moment. Last Thanksgiving, federal and local authorities urged Americans to stop the holiday gatherings before the vaccine was available. Public health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of America’s leading infectious disease experts, primarily suggest that vaccinated people can be assembled in relative safety.
Still, according to the CDC, the unvaccinated are 5.8 times more likely to test positive for COVID-19 and 14 times more likely to die than those vaccinated, but the delta mutation is particularly infectious. Due to the current dominance of the body, its protection is limited.
Vaccinated people could also be infected and infected with the virus, and weakened vaccine protection prompted all American adults to campaign for additional booster shots.
During the summer, COVID-19 cases spread across the southeast like wildfires, and health experts accused these states of being reluctant to impose mask and vaccine requirements. .. But now, surprisingly, these states have the lowest case rates in the country, and the virus is more vaccinated and spread to the dark north.
For example, the total population of Minnesota is vaccinated at 62.1%, about the same as 62.8% in California. However, Minnesota’s case rate per 100,000 people over the past seven days was 524.5, almost seven times higher than California’s 75.8. The case rate in New York, where 68.1% of the total population is vaccinated, is 325.6.
The course of the virus in Europe, where Austria was blocked and parts of Germany closed the Christmas market, raised concerns about how many cases would increase in the United States.
Dr. George Rutherford, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, said the innate immunity that people gain after recovering from an infection also helps keep case rates low in places like the southeastern part of the United States. harsh summer. Occurrence says to be fulfilled. It’s unclear how long that immunity will last, but infections in other parts of the United States are largely unvaccinated.
According to Rutherford, California appears to be in better shape for the Thanksgiving holiday than it was last year when the infectious disease was “skyrocketing.” To what extent this year’s vaccines reduce infections and hospitalizations remains an “unsolved problem,” he said, but it will focus on unvaccinated people.
“We need to jumpstart people and get the vaccine for children ages 5 to 11,” Rutherford said. “If we do that, we will be in very good shape.”