Can California avoid a third devastating COVID-19 winter wave? Cautious signs of hope for the state
California, which is now testing roughly 400 people a day, has not tested a single positive case in the past week, though a cluster of people under investigation have been diagnosed.
This is a week in which California’s testing rate remains in double digits for the second straight week, despite a backlog of more than 3,000 test kits, with more than 800 of those kits not yet processed by local labs.
“This testing is going better and better and better,” said John Myers, president of the California State University of Brawley Student Association. “Maybe we’re finally able to get to this really crucial threshold of testing more people.”
California has now surpassed 100,000 coronavirus cases and 1,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
If California were to reach a third surge, where there is a large number of cases and deaths, it would mean thousands of more deaths statewide, and thousands of more new cases, Myers said, all while making state testing more difficult.
“It makes me wonder is the surge a good thing for California, or bad?” he said. “I think it’s definitely a bad thing for us. But, right now, this is a good thing I think.”
New patients are currently testing positive in California at a rate that far outpaces the rate at which new cases are being identified outside of California, Dr. Eric D. Knutson, deputy director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said in a statement Thursday. This is happening due to new protocols to test for the virus, he said.
“The increase in tests underscores the fact that as the crisis unfolds, the surge in the disease spreads at an increasing rate,” he said. “We’ve had more than 1,000 new cases daily in California until now, with over 400 new cases per day on average.”
If California’s daily rate of new cases, currently at around 400-500 a day, were to continue, a three-wave scenario would come. The first wave would be on the West Coast, beginning Wednesday, followed by a second wave by Thursday
