19 deaths in a day

California breaks its record for most COVID-19 deaths in a day

By Amy Graff

California broke its record for the highest number of deaths linked to COVID-19 in a single day this week.

The Department of Public Health reported 197 fatalities on Tuesday. This tragic number comes after the state saw a surge in cases and hospitalizations in July.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 8,715 COVID-19 deaths in California.

While deaths are going up, the rate of increase in new cases is slightly slowing down. The 7-day average number of new cases was 8,818 per day as of Tuesday, according to the CDPH. A week ago the 7-day average was 9,420. California has 475,305 confirmed cases to date.

The state has created a watch list for counties that require extra monitoring due to increased transmission of the virus. There are currently 37 of the 58 counties on the list, representing some 93% of the state population.

In the Bay Area, all nine counties are now on the watch list. After dodging the list for weeks, San Mateo County was added Wednesday.