Even as hospitals stagger from COVID-19 overload and brace for more cases, a small ray of hope dawned Monday that California’s stay-at-home orders are starting to have an effect.
Although the state once again recorded its highest number of new coronavirus infections in a single day — 66,811 — the tally included a backlog from the long Christmas weekend, during which many counties did not issue reports.
Looked at more broadly, the average daily number of cases reported over a weeklong period has fallen slightly from its peak, which reached about 45,000 a day for the seven-day period ending Dec. 22. By Monday night, the average daily number of new coronavirus cases was about 38,000.
The improvement is nothing to be overly cheerful about, though. Monday’s daily average is still worse than the comparable figure from two weeks ago. It will likely be some weeks before this flattening of new coronavirus cases results in a slight easing of new hospitalizations — a small reprieve ahead of what officials and experts expect will be another surge in new infections stemming from gatherings and travel over the winter holidays.
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