California has the lowest COVID-19 case rate out of any other state in the country, according to the most recent data from the CDC.
California has about 95 new cases over 7 days per 100,000 people, according to the data. The U.S. as a whole is at nearly three times the rate of California at just over 250 new cases over seven days per 100,000 people. Connecticut has the second-lowest case rate at 126, and then Colorado is at 127.
Even with the rise in the delta variant, there has been a 32% drop in average weekly COVID-19 cases as of Thursday compared to a month earlier – 25 per 100,000 people, down from 33 per 100,000, according to reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle.
But this is only partially thanks to vaccination – California is only the 19th most vaccinated state.
"We are not the most vaccinated state," said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, chair of UCSF's Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. "But we are also a state that has not completely abandoned the other mitigation methods."
Masking is still required throughout various public facilities such as schools and hospitals, and in several counties masks are still required indoors like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
West Virginia had the highest case rate, at over 715 cases per 100,000 people, followed by Alaska at 562 and Montana at 485, according to CDC data as of Monday.
Cases in the Bay Area are much lower than they are statewide, likely due to more aggressive COVID-19 safety policies. In eight of the nine counties, masks are required in nearly all indoor public settings.
As a result, case rates have gone down in many Bay Area counties while others throughout the state still have relatively high case rates.
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