Newsom Updates COVID Numbers, Debuts New ‘Combat’ Tools
Sacramento, CA – As California’s COVID-19 testing numbers continue to rise, the governor appealed to ‘citizen scientists’ towards helping residents better understand the pandemic’s impacts and how their responses make a huge difference.
In his Thursday COVID-19 briefing, Governor Gavin Newsom explained a set of tools his Administration was rolling out that are intended to refine state and counties’ insights and knowledge about disease spread from the pandemic and encourage more collaboration between the states and researchers. He also instructed all state agencies and departments to make all COVID-19 data and information publicly accessible excepting that which would violate privacy.
“California is home to some of the world’s most accomplished researchers, technologists, scientists, acclaimed universities, and leading technology companies. Today, I am opening more California data for them to help inform our efforts in combating this disease,” Newsom stated.
As he debuted the California COVID Assessment Tool (CalCAT), he described it as an open-source “model of models” that will allow scientists, researchers, and the public to access the most current COVID-19 data and models so they can be analyzed and improved upon.
The modeling in the new tool includes Nowcasts, geared to show how fast the infection rate is spreading now; forecasts of what can be expected within the next two to four weeks; and scenarios of what long-term impacts might be in store considering various variables. “While these models and forecasts make different assumptions, all of them show that individual actions can dramatically change the trajectory of the virus,” he pointed out.
He emphasized, “Our state’s ability to slow the spread of the virus and keep more people from getting sick depends on Californians acting responsibly and following public health guidelines. That means wearing a face covering, staying physically distant, and staying at home if you are older or at risk.”
California, the country’s most populous state, is among those where infections are on the rise. As of Thursday, the statewide COVID case numbers were up 2.8 percent at 195,571 cases with 5,733 deaths, which is a 1.8 percent increase. There have been 101 deaths since Tuesday.
The reported testing total to date is 3,694,345 with an increase of 101,446 tests since Tuesday. The rate of positive tests over the last 14 days is 5.1 percent, which is a half percent more than 14 days ago. California’s hospitalizations due to the virus increased by 145 since Tuesday.
While both Tuolumne and Calaveras counties, respectively at 9 and 26 confirmed COVID-19 cases, are in the bottom dozen of the state’s 58 counties and neither has reported any related deaths, adjacent Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties are seeing a surge of new cases, reporting 189 and 178 in the past two days. Stanislaus so far has 2,039 cases resulting in 38 deaths. San Joaquin has 2,680 with 49 reported deaths.
