When the state celebrated its full economic reopening in mid-June, California was reporting fewer than 1,000 new coronavirus cases a day. Now, the state is seeing between 5,000 and 6,000, on average.
And about 100 Californians are still dying of COVID-19 every day. Before the Delta variant surge, California was reporting about 25 deaths a day.
Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, an Orange County deputy health officer, has been warning for weeks that a pandemic uptick was possible as the weather cools if vaccination rates do not drastically improve. In mid-October, she pointed to the experience of the United Kingdom, which at times has foreshadowed the direction the U.S. has headed.
