COVID-19 pandemic in California

See also: COVID-19 pandemic in the San Francisco Bay Area

COVID-19 pandemic in California
A UC Davis engineer using COVID-19 testing equipment
DiseaseCOVID-19
Virus strainSARS-CoV-2
LocationCalifornia, U.S
First outbreakWuhan, Hubei, China
Index caseOrange County
Arrival dateJanuary 25, 2020[1]
Confirmed cases9,894,792 (JHU)[2]
9,199,942 (CDPH)[3]
Suspected cases‡At least 221,000 in April 2020[4][5]
Hospitalized cases11,045 (confirmed)
820 (suspected)[3]
Critical cases2,996 (confirmed)
95 (suspected)[3]
Deaths
91,922 (JHU)[2]
91,240 (CDPH)[3]
63,191 (Google News)
Government website
cdph.ca.gov/covid19
‡Suspected cases have not been confirmed by laboratory tests as being due to this strain, although some other strains may have been ruled out.

The COVID-19 pandemic in California began earlier than in some other parts of the United States. Ten of the first 20 confirmed COVID-19 infections in the United States were detected in California, and the first infection was confirmed on January 26, 2020.[6][7][8] All of the early confirmed cases were persons who had recently travelled to China, as testing was restricted to this group, but there were some other people infected by that point. A state of emergency was declared in the state on March 4, 2020. A mandatory statewide stay-at-home order was issued on March 19, 2020; it was ended on January 25, 2021.[9] On April 6, 2021, the state announced plans to fully reopen the economy by June 15, 2021.[10]

As of June 16, 2022, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has reported 9,199,942 confirmed cumulative cases and 91,240 deaths in the state.[3] This was the highest number of confirmed cases in the United States, but because the state has the highest population of any US state, it also had one of the lowest rankings (41st highest out of 50 states) for confirmed cases per capita. It has the highest count of deaths related to the virus, but a relatively low (35th highest) count of deaths per capita.[11][12][13] As of June 15, 2021, California had administered 40,669,793 COVID-19 vaccine doses, the largest number of doses nationwide, and was one of the highest ranked (11th out of 50 states) in terms of per-capita dose administration.[14]

A bipartisan effort of politicians and owners of restaurants, bars, gyms, spas, and other small businesses harmed by lockdown restrictions attempted to recall Governor Gavin Newsom in 2021; he won the election with 66% support.[15][16]

California is the origin of the Epsilon variant of SARS-CoV-2, which, in March 2021, accounted for 35% of all confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state at that time.[17][18]

  1. ^ "California Becomes First State With 2 Million COVID-19 Cases". KQED. December 24, 2020.
  2. ^ a b Johns Hopkins CSSE. "Coronavirus COVID19 (2019-nCoV)" (ArcGIS). Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases. Archived from the original on March 4, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)". California Department of Public Health. Archived from the original on March 5, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  4. ^ Mason, Melanie (April 20, 2020). "Hundreds of thousands in L.A. County may have been infected with coronavirus, study finds". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on April 21, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  5. ^ Higgins-Dunn, Noah; Miller, Hannah (April 20, 2020). "Coronavirus antibody testing shows LA County outbreak is up to 55 times bigger than reported cases". CNBC. Archived from the original on April 21, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2020. USC and the health department released preliminary study results that found that an estimated 4.1% of the county's adult population has antibodies to the coronavirus, estimating that between 221,000 adults to 442,000 adults in the county have had the infection.
  6. ^ "United States Coronavirus: 28,924,762 Cases and 515,846 Deaths - Worldometer". www.worldometers.info. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
  7. ^ Wheeler, Ian (February 4, 2020). "Orange County coronavirus patient released, in good condition, health officials say". Orange County Register. Archived from the original on February 5, 2020. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
  8. ^ "Ninth case of fast-moving coronavirus confirmed in U.S." Reuters. February 2, 2020. Archived from the original on February 3, 2020. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
  9. ^ "California Governor Gavin Newsom lifts virus stay-at-home orders". CBS News. January 26, 2021. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
  10. ^ Money, Luke; Luna, Taryn. "California aims to fully reopen its economy June 15". Retrieved April 6, 2021.
  11. ^ "Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the U.S." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Archived from the original on March 2, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2020.
  12. ^ "ArcGIS Dashboards". Johns Hopkins University. Archived from the original on May 21, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2020.
  13. ^ "Coronavirus (COVID-19) U.S. Deaths". RealClearPolitics. Retrieved September 28, 2020.
  14. ^ "See How the Vaccine Rollout Is Going in Your State". The New York Times. March 19, 2021.
  15. ^ Bowles, Nellie (February 19, 2021). "Hurt by Lockdowns, California's Small Businesses Push to Recall Governor (Published 2021)". The New York Times. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  16. ^ Hubler, Shawn (September 15, 2021). "Newsom Survives California Recall Vote and Will Remain Governor (Published 2021)". The New York Times. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  17. ^ Abdel Latif, Alaa; Gangavarapu, Karthik; Haag, Emily; Matteson, Nate; Mullen, Julia L.; Tsueng, Ginger; Zeller, Mark; Wu, Chunlei; Su, Andrew I.; Hughes, Laura D.; Andersen, Kristian G. "B.1.427 Lineage Report". outbreak.info. Center for Viral Systems Biology. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  18. ^ Abdel Latif, Alaa; Gangavarapu, Karthik; Haag, Emily; Matteson, Nate; Mullen, Julia L.; Tsueng, Ginger; Zeller, Mark; Wu, Chunlei; Su, Andrew I.; Hughes, Laura D.; Andersen, Kristian G. "B.1.429 Lineage Report". outbreak.info. Center for Viral Systems Biology. Retrieved March 2, 2021.