As ICUs across the state were overrun with Covid-19 cases this week, California Governor Gavin Newsom said of the virus, “This is not something to be trifled with. Think about what the January number may look like if we continue [this way].” January’s number may have come a little sooner than the governor expected.
When Newsom made that statement on Wednesday, he reported the number of new daily coronavirus cases at 32,326. That was just slightly down from the all-time high of 35,468, which was set on Friday. Friday’s number was up from just over 22,000 one week before. But the rise in new cases on Wednesday was unprecedented.
California’s Covid-19 dashboard reported 53,711 new cases over the previous 24-hour period. Usually a big jump in one day can be attributed to a backlog of cases from the weekend. But given the daily numbers were so high on Monday and Tuesday — when weekend numbers usually clear — there is little chance of that.
