December 4, 2020 – The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) today announced the most recent statistics on COVID-19.

  • California has 1,286,557 confirmed cases to date. Numbers may not represent true day-over-day change as reporting of test results can be delayed.
  • There were 22,018 newly recorded confirmed cases Thursday. Numbers do not represent true day-over-day change as these results include cases from prior to yesterday.
  • The 7-day positivity rate is 8.5% and the 14-day positivity rate is 7.3%.
  • There have been 24,675,478 tests conducted in California. This represents an increase of 200,836 over the prior 24-hour reporting period.
  • As case numbers continue to rise in California, the total number of individuals who will have serious outcomes will also increase. There have been 19,582 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Regional Stay Home Order

To preserve California’s health care system, the state announced a new Regional Stay Home Order yesterday that goes into effect if intensive care unit (ICU) capacity drops below 15% in any one of five regions across the state. Today’s data is for informational purposes only as the order does not take effect until December 5, 2020 at 12:59 p.m.

Current available ICU capacity by region:

  • Bay Area: 21.2%
  • Greater Sacramento Region: 21.4%
  • Northern California: 20.9%
  • San Joaquin Valley: 14.1%
  • Southern California: 13.1%

Testing Turnaround Time

The testing turnaround dashboard reports how long California patients are waiting for COVID-19 test results. California has worked to reduce testing turnaround times in recent weeks to help curb the spread of the virus. During the week of November 22 to November 28, the average time patients waited for test results was 1.7 days. During this same time period, 51 percent of patients received test results in 1 day and 78 percent received them within 2 days. The testing turnaround time dashboard is updated weekly. At this time, all four tiers in the Testing Prioritization Guidance, originally issued July 14, 2020, have equal priority for testing.

Blueprint for a Safer Economy

Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, a statewide plan for reducing COVID-19 and keeping Californians healthy and safe. The plan imposes risk-based criteria on tightening and loosening COVID-19 allowable activities and expands the length of time between changes to assess how any movement affects the trajectory of the disease.

Californians can go to covid19.ca.gov to find out where their county falls and what activities are allowable in each county.