Hospitalizations for COVID-19 in California and the bay area have reached their highest point since February, when the region was still emerging from the rise of the winter omicron.
On Friday, there were 4,009 people hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state, and hospitals in the bay area reported 770 patients, according to data from the California Department of Public Health.
COVID’s admissions to intensive care units in the bay area also rose to 94, compared to 63 a month ago. The region accounts for about a quarter of the 419 ICU patients statewide.
Infections remain high in California as the test positive rate approaches record levels. The state has an average of 40 new daily cases of coronavirus per 100,000 population, with 16.7% of tests positive for the virus. The bay area reports 43 daily cases per 100,000 population, a figure that has remained virtually unchanged for more than a month.
But the cases are probably not reported significantly because of so many people now doing tests at home, the results of which are not usually recorded with the state or counties, or are not being tested.
With omicron’s highly infectious and immunoevasive BA.4 and BA.5 underlinings that are now the dominant strains in northern California, the region is on the brink of its second largest wave of COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
Hospitalization and ICU figures, however, remain well below those recorded during previous COVID increases, when fewer people were vaccinated and treatments such as antiviral drugs were not yet available. Deaths from COVID, a delayed indicator of pandemic trends, remain low in California. Now about 40 people die a day, compared to 25 a month ago, still below the levels recorded last fall and winter.
In fact, numerous preliminary studies suggest that BA.4 and BA.5 are no more virulent than previous versions of the coronavirus. The increase in hospital admissions is a function of the burden of bloating cases, but the hospitalization rate is much lower than it was even during the original omicron increase last winter, for not to mention the above variants.
The new variants have mutated substantially from their omicron ancestor, to the point that some scientists believe that BA.5 should at least receive its own Greek letter name. This genetic drift may explain in part why infection with the original omicron provides little protection against reinfection with its variants.
“The main reason this variant has become the predominant one now circulating is that it is able to evade previous immunity,” said Dean Blumberg, head of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Children’s Hospital . “Even people who have partial immunity from a previous infection or vaccination may still have an innovative infection.”
For the second week in a row, all counties in the Bay Area are classified as elevated levels of COVID-19, according to federal data. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses metrics based on new cases of coronavirus and hospitalizations per 100,000 residents, plus the percentage of hospital beds occupied by patients with COVID-19, to classify COVID levels.
At this level, health systems can be subject to stress due to the high patient load, and all residents are advised to wear masks in indoor public spaces.
“The good news is that the vast majority of innovative infections are now outpatient diseases,” Blumberg said. “They’re not leading to the kind of serious illness we saw before the pandemic when no one had immunity, which led to an increase in hospitalizations and deaths.”
Aidin Vaziri is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com