California's COVID-19 Hospitalizations Up 56%; ICU Admissions Up 49%
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Gov. Gavin Newsom says California has seen an increase in its hospitalizations and ICU admissions.
California reported 4,056 new cases of COVID-19 and 73 deaths Thursday.
In his Thursday briefing, Newsom said the state's positivity rate has gone up to 6.3% over 14 days. A chart displayed alongside the governor showed the positivity rate started at 40.8% in March and was driven down in the months since.
"Unfortunately, we're starting to see an increase in the positivity rate, not only over a 14-day period, but over the last seven days, it has been 6.9%," he said.
Another concerning benchmark is hospitalizations in the state, which are up 56% over a two-week reporting period. There's a total of 5,355 COVID-19 patients in California hospitals, which represents 7% of the patients hospitalized in the state, he said. California's hospital system has the capacity to care for 73,867 patients.
Intensive Care Unit, or ICU, admissions are also up 49%. Out of 10,788 total ICU beds, 1,676 are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
"We still have capacity in our ICU system," Newsom said. But, "this is capacity in the aggregate," meaning a total ICU beds across the state.
Newsom also reiterated the importance of the state's mask mandate by unveiling a new PSA. The public awareness campaign will begin airing ahead of the Fourth of July weekend in both English and Spanish and expand into other languages later this month on local TV and radio stations.
