Despite growing public skepticism about their data, California officials say the state may be bending the curve in its fight against COVID-19. The number of coronavirus patients in hospitals across the state has reportedly dropped 22% in the last three weeks, from a high of over 7,000 to about 5,500. The number of ICU patients also is said to have dropped from its peak three weeks ago. Governor Gavin Newsom calls those numbers "encouraging signs," but he also insists that they are not enough for "the kind of stability and long-term decline" California needs to reach ease his order closure of the state's economy and schools.
State officials admitted last week that the nearly 300,000 coronavirus tests were unprocessed and not subsequently not reported by the California Department of Public Health. Director Dr. Sonia Angell submitted her resignation to Governor Newsom shortly after the revelation, and she is presumably being replaced as part of a departmental leadership shake up. Newsom on Monday said he believes the results from the now cleared backlog of tests will still support the trends announced by the state last week. He has said previously that scientific data drives his administration's decisions about when and how the state will begin to reopen and people allowed to resume something close to a normal life. That technical "glitch" is said to been resolved last weekend.
At the same time, the CDPH is reporting that the virus is surging among children and teens in the state. They say the rate of infections among younger people went up by 150% in July. More than 50,000 cases among children and teens were reported in California this week, and that would account for almost 10% of the total number of reported cases. The experts add that the increase in cases among kids can also be seen nationally, which reportedly increased by 40% in the second half of last month. Those numbers come as America draws closer to the start of a new school year and the debate over distance learning versus in-class education continues.
Governor Gavin Newsom has just announced some changes to California's coronavirus watch list of counties experiencing the most severe effects of coronavirus. Counties will start moving on and off the list again now that the glitch in the state's reporting system has been fixed. County officials will update their case counts in the next couple of days. Newsom added that if a county is eligible to be removed from the watch list, its official first day off the list will be the date it first met the requisite thresholds, not the date it was formally removed. There are currently 38 counties on the watch list.