As regions across the nation see an uptick in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations in California are on the decline. Thom Jensen reports.
As other parts of the nation worry about a second wave of coronavirus and what one top health officials calls "the silent spread," the Bay Area and the state are seeing a downward trend in cases, likely due to adherence to strict guidelines.
Nearly 120,000 tests are administered statewide every day, and the number of people testing positive is down to 3.2%.
In most of the Bay Area, its below that.
San Francisco is at 1.4%, and in Santa Clara County, where businesses are expecting to get the green light on Tuesday to open limited indoor dining and gatherings, the rate is down to 1.8%.
University of San Francisco’s Monica Gandhi attributes the downward trends to masking and taking the reopening process slowly.
“I suspect that with such a low community transmission rate, and the way we’re [reopening] which is so slow, we are not going to see surges and we’re going to be fine,” she said.
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Nationally, the picture is much bleaker.
According to an organization that tracks COVID-19, 44 states are currently trending poorly or having an uncontrolled spread.
“What we are seeing is when we take down our guard with people we know,” said Dr. Deborah Brix, a specialist on the White House COVID task force. “I can know you, and you can be asymptomatic and infected.”
Experts warn even with new therapies and a vaccine, it will be months until life returns to normal.
On Friday, Broadway announced it will remain closed until at least June 2021.
As far as California is concerned, Gandhi has a positive outlook on the winter flu season, as long as everyone keeps their guard up.
“I do think that all of this masking, all of this keeping away from each other, is going to make our flu season very mild,” she said. “This has already been shown by the CDC in the southern hemisphere when everything was shut down and people were wearing masks. They didn’t even remotely have the flu season that everyone thought they would.”
The state will determine which counties get to relax restrictions next Tuesday.
