California reports record high number of coronavirus cases, weekly deaths

California reported a record number of COVID-19 infections in a single day Monday, with 11,554 new cases, according to the Los Angeles Times’s roundup of all 58 counties in the state.

The report entered on Monday surpasses the single-day record broken just last week, when the state saw 11,142 COVID-19 cases, according to The Los Angeles Times.

California has also reported increased death tolls ranging between 91 and 99 fatalities each day since July 10, which ranks as the worst seven-day average since the pandemic started earlier this year.

The weeklong period that ended Monday marked the highest weekly total to date, with 674 deaths in the state. The new record indicates a 5 percent increase in fatalities since the previous seven-day period, which saw 640 deaths.

For the past three weeks, government-mandated shutdowns of businesses and services, including bars and restaurants, have been underway and could contribute to lowering hospitalization rates across the state.

Hospitalizations grew by 7 percent Sunday, but were lower than the previous weekend of July 12, when admissions increased by 12 percent. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Monday the positivity rate from coronavirus tests had dropped from 7.7 percent to 7.2 percent compared to the previous seven-day rate. However, it is likely too early to know whether the trend will continue to fall, according to Mark Ghaly, secretary of California’s Health and Human Services Agency.

“As soon as we feel confident in that trend and we see other numbers start to stabilize, we’ll credit some of the moves we made over the last few weeks,” Ghaly said. “It’s been about three, four weeks since we … first started to make moves … so we’re right in that time period where we may see some of the … benefits of those [policy changes].”