Bay Area Sees Record-High COVID-19 Deaths As State Trend Declines

BAY AREA, CA — Though deaths linked to COVID-19 have been down statewide, the Bay Area saw a record-high death toll of 27 Wednesday, Bay Area News Group reported.

The majority of those deaths —17 — were in Alameda County, the paper reported. In total, the county had seen 18,852 cases of the coronavirus and 295 deaths, according to statistics available Friday morning.

After Wednesday, the seven-day fatality average in California inched up to 111 deaths per day, Bay Area News Group reported.

Alameda County has seen more cases of the coronavirus than the rest of the Bay Area. Alameda County case rates are highest in Oakland, from the Fruitvale neighborhood down to the San Leandro border, county data shows.

The University of California, San Francisco has plans to launch a large COVID-19 testing operation in East Oakland, Bay Area News Group reported.

But despite these statistics, things are looking up overall in California.

State indicators of the novel coronavirus' spread have trended down in recent weeks as the state's average daily test positivity rate has fallen below 4.5 percent in the last seven days, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday. Cases have been trending south since mid-July, when the state issued a temporary shutdown of indoor operations for businesses like bars, movie theaters and restaurants.

Since hovering around 7.5 percent at that time, the state's test positivity rate has also steadily declined. While the seven-day positivity average sits at 4.4 percent, the state's 14-day average daily positivity rate now sits at 5.1 percent.

Newsom cautioned that while the rate of positive tests has trended down across the state, the pandemic will still be potent if people let their guard down.

"We saw this a few months back, we started to see progress over an extended period of time and, invariably, people said 'well, looks like we're out of the woods,'" he said.

Here's how the rest of the Bay Area has fared, according to COVID-19 statistics available Friday morning:

• Contra Costa: 14,212 cases; 183 deaths
• Marin: 4,048 cases; 70 deaths
• Napa: 1,456 cases; 13 deaths
• San Francisco: 9,755 cases; 84 deaths
• San Mateo: 8,390 cases; 132 deaths
• Santa Clara: 17,993 cases; 253 deaths
• Solano: 5,631 cases; 47 deaths
• Sonoma: 6,142 cases; 93 deaths

— Bay City News contributed to this report

Read more at Bay Area News Group