California continued on a path of steadily increasing new COVID-19 cases, recording on Saturday the second-most new patients in a day.
Local health departments around the state reported 4,075 new positive tests, bringing the total to 174,802 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus across the state. The 7-day average of daily cases reached another new high.
Across the state, 71 new deaths were reported, bringing the total deaths to 5,493. The 7-day average of daily deaths continued to hover between 60 and 70, as it has been for the past three weeks, a slight improvement from the average daily deaths of between 70 and 80 for most of April and May.
Alameda County continued a recent trend of reporting the most new cases in the greater Bay Area, adding 103 new yesterday, bringing their total to 4,805. Contra Costa County reported 92 new cases, the most new cases they have reported in a day. Santa Clara County reported 60 new cases, and San Francisco County reported just 1.
None of the counties in the greater Bay Area reported new deaths on Saturday, although San Mateo County did not post any updated numbers.
Hospitalizations, one of the key metrics for tracking the virus, continued a week of day-to-day increases, and set a new record with 3,574 confirmed COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the state. That is 77 more patients than the previous high of 3,497 confirmed COVID-19 patients reported on April 29, and an increase of 80 patients from the day before.
The numbers of patients in statewide ICUs also continued to increase over the past week, with 1,163 confirmed COVID-19 patients in intensive care units around the state on Saturday.
San Joaquin County had a big spike in new cases, reporting 593 on Saturday, bringing their county total to 2,519. The increasing cases and hospitalizations continue to be concentrated in certain counties, some tied to acute outbreaks of the novel coronavirus in crowded residential settings like long-term care facilities and prisons.
The number of Californians being tested daily for coronavirus also continues to increase, with nearly 85,000 test results reported yesterday and more than 3.3 million tests conducted in the state so far.