Santa Clara County Reports 14 New Cases, Deaths Remain at 140

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA – On a day when Gov. Gavin Newsom empowered local government agencies to determine what reopening looks like in their communities and when California became the seventh state to record more than 4,000 coronavirus-related deaths, Santa Clara County continues to hold steady in the cases being experienced locally.

On Friday, the county only recorded 14 new confirmed cases over the past 24 hours and did not record any new deaths, according to state health officials. Countywide, 140 people have died from the coronavirus while 2,701 people have now tested positive.

According to county health officials, 71,037 people have been tested with 401 patients still awaiting the results. The county has a 3.01 percent test positivity rate and 52 county residents remain hospitalized, including 16 which remain in intensive care.

While the local caseload has showed signs of slowing down, the new 95 deaths announced Friday statewide took California’s death total to 4,068 while 103,886 people have tested positive, state health officials announced.

Still, Newsom has directed local officials to determine at what rate their respective municipalities will reopen. While the state has, and will continue, to provide guidance based on how California will reopen, Newsom is permitting city and county officials to determine the pace of that process.

“Each county has its own unique conditions and localism is the foundational principle,” Newsom said Friday.

State officials have based guidelines on 17 different sectors of the economy, but Newsom said that no guidance has been created that would point to the state moving onto Phase 4, when large gatherings such as sporting events, conventions and other sizable events would be permitted until “we are in a much better position than we are today.”

As communities move at various paces toward reopening, Newsom continues to monitor the same data state health officials have relied on during the pandemic to determine when further loosening of regulations can be done. Newsom pointed on Friday to slight declines in hospitalizations and in intensive care units as a reason that the state is continuing to move in the right direction.

“We bent this curve,” Newsom said. “In fact, we didn’t bend it. We never allowed that curve to take off like other parts in this country. We’ve had stability for weeks and weeks and weeks.”