Just one day after the state earned praise for dropping to a "substantial" spread of COVID-19, California is back in the grips of "high" coronavirus transmission.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday placed California in the "substantial" tier of the agency's transmission risk chart for the first time since the delta variant took hold over the summer. To reach the "substantial" category, weekly rates must drop between 50-99 cases per 100,000 people, at least three times lower than the current national average of 307 cases per 100,000.
During a Wednesday afternoon press conference with Gov. Gavin Newsom in Oakland, state officials credited the achievement to California's vaccination rates, with 68.5% of eligible state residents fully vaccinated, as well as public compliance with COVID-19 restrictions such as mask-wearing.
It didn’t last long.
The state’s seven-day average of new cases once again exceeded 100 per 100,000 people as of 11:38 a.m. PT on Wednesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California's seven-day average of new cases rose to 113.4 per 100,000 people, per the agency's data.
That’s still the lowest rate of any state, but none were shaded orange on the agency's map on Wednesday following California's fleeting headway. All states were colored red, indicating a high level of coronavirus transmission. Puerto Rico was the only state or territory in the country with "substantial" transmission (83 new cases per 100,000), according to the agency.
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