Recent COVID-19 statistics were released on Sunday by the California Department of Public Health. It was reported that California has more than 45,000 COVID-19 cases with more than 1,700 deaths, says an article.


COVID-19 Testing in California

As of Sunday, at least 526,084 COVID-19 tests were administered in California. All of these tests were reported to the California Department of Public Health. The tests were conducted explicitly in private laboratories, commercial laboratories, and academic laboratories such as LabCorp, Quest, University of California and Sanford, Kaiser, and 22 state and county health laboratories currently performing tests.

The Department is currently reporting all the test reports from California rather than the total of individuals who were tested. There are now new laboratory testing procedures for COVID-19, although some are experiencing delays in providing reports to the state.

To solve this issue and to make sure that the data is accurate and reflects the current testing capacity of the state, the Department is communicating directly with laboratories to assess the completeness of reporting and collection of additional data on testing as needed.

Additionally, laboratories have been trying their best to resolve test backlogs that await processing. The delay is currently reduced, which helps ensure that the potential additional demand from testing guidelines and the opening of 86 more sample collection areas in different parts of California can be met.


A Clearer Picture of the Demographics

The California Department of Public Health is dedicated to equity in health and collection of more specific racial and ethnic data to help give more understanding to help with the determination of future actions.

Health outcomes are affected by factors such as poverty, and structural criticism, and the disproportionate prevalence of health conditions such as heart illnesses and asthma among Latinos and African-American residents of California. By looking at the entire picture, everyone will be able to have a clearer understanding of how to make sure the best outcomes are given to every resident of California.

The difference in health outcomes concerning COVID-19 is most stark in the deaths caused by the illness. The data on ethnicity and race on COVID-19 deaths in the state is almost complete.

In General, for adults who are 18 years old and older, African-Americans, Latinos, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians, they are dying in disproportionally inclining levels. The proportions of deaths from COVID-19 among African-Americans is double their population representation in all adult age brackets. Also, For Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians, their overall numbers are low.

However, there is a four-fold difference between their population representation and deaths from COVID-19. Furthermore, more men are losing their battle with COVID-19 than females, and this information is in line with the trend in the country.


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Infection Rate Among Healthcare Workers

Healthcare workers are the ones who stand in the frontlines to help COVID-19 patients recover from the illness. As of April 25, the local health departments in California have reported almost 5,000 healthcare workers who tested positive of COVID-19, 24 of them have lost the battle with the disease.