CA Hits 1M COVID-19 Cases; Records Steepest Surge Since Summer

CALIFORNIA — California saw the highest number of new COVID-19 cases recorded in one day since August Friday as the state eclipsed 1 million cases Thursday. California is now the second U.S. state to surpass 1 million coronavirus cases.

While some reports said California hit the 1 million case mark as early as Thursday, the state of California's COVID-19 dashboard officially reported 1 million infections on Saturday. The state has also confirmed at least 18,218 deaths.

The Golden State is also seeing the fastest rise of cases reported daily since March, public health officials announced Friday.

From June 15 to June 21, the state saw a 39 percent rise in daily case numbers; from Nov. 1 to Nov. 7, the state saw a similar surge in cases, sharply increasing by 47 percent, said Dr. Erica Pan on Friday, the state's public health officer.

California may have officially entered its dreaded and anticipated fall surge, recording 9,875 new cases Friday, a 1 percent increase from Thursday.

"When cases are increasing at this pace, it is really important for us to act quickly," she said.

The state reported this steep rise in cases just one day after joining Oregon and Washington to ask travelers to self-quarantine for 14 days after crossing state borders for non-essential trips.

"This isn't a ban, it isn't a restriction, it's an advisory," Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state's health secretary, said at a Friday news briefing. "We're encouraging Californians to stay close to home, to avoid nonessential travel to other states, other countries and frankly across the state if that's avoidable."

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The statewide travel advisory was published Friday, ultimately urging residents to reconsider any travel plans.

"As I say to my patients, 'when I'm worried, I'll tell you so you can worry with me' and we're there," Ghaly said.

Ghaly said Friday that there were no immediate plans for another stay-at-home order but he suggested more counties could face additional restrictions at some point.

"We are not looking today at a statewide stay-at-home order, we know that many Californians are fatigued and tired," Ghaly said.

Eleven counties moved backwards on the state's COVID-19 risk assessing blueprint Tuesday and no counties were able to move forward with reopening plans.

"Purple is our more restrictive tier, many counties in the state are already in purple, others are moving there," Ghaly said. "...If additional changes to the purple tier are required, we will be working with our local partners to determine what's there."

And although no official guidelines for the looming Thanksgiving holiday have been released, Ghaly said Friday that any activity in which a mask couldn't be worn the whole time, was considered to be high risk.

"When you're eating and drinking, that creates a higher risk situation," Ghaly said. "Activities where you see people you haven't seen recently, people outside of your household, creates a higher risk situation."

He also added even if a gathering is indoors, windows and doors should be open to allow for more air flow.

In Los Angeles County alone, 3,780 cases were logged, the highest amount of positive cases, not associated with a backlog of cases, since mid-July.

LA's Department of Public Health said this elevated number of cases likely reflects increased testing across the county, with more than 56,000 tests processed Friday.

But the positivity rate remains high and could be driven by an influx of younger people gathering. More than 74 percent of new cases recorded in LA on Saturday were from people under the ave of 50. Conversely, 90% of Saturday's reported deaths were over 50 years old.

"Many younger people are out socializing with non-household members, raising concerns that asymptomatic young people are helping to spread the virus to more vulnerable people at a time when cases are surging dangerously in the county," Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said.

The City News Service contributed to this report.