Another day of persistent new cases and fatalities from COVID-19 in California ended in another grim milestone Thursday.
Another 80 Californians perished from the virus, raising the state’s death toll over 3,000, to 3,049 by Thursday evening. New cases also didn’t slow down, with another 1,823 pushing the state’s case count to 74,815, according to data compiled by this news organization.
Once again, the majority of the growth was in Southern California, with Los Angeles County accounting for about half the new cases and 50 of Thursday’s reported fatalities, while neighboring Orange County reported its most new cases in a single day since the outbreak began (219).
In the Bay Area, the pace of new cases has slowed everywhere but Alameda County, which has been the region’s leader in new cases the past two days and in the top two of the Bay Area’s 10 counties for the past 10 days.
Overall, the region added another 125 confirmed cases Thursday, raising its total to 10,505. While the Bay Area accounts for 14% of the state’s total case count, it’s responsible for less than 7% of the new cases in the state. Five Southern California counties — Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego Riverside and San Bernardino — accounted for 75% of Thursday’s new cases, consistent with the past week.
After reporting its most new cases on Wednesday, Imperial County, which borders Arizona and Mexico, added another 65 on Thursday, its second-largest increase of the outbreak. At 371 cases per 100,000 residents, it has the highest infection rate of any county in California.
Hospitalizations remained flat across the state and the Bay Area, with 3,261 hospitalized statewide, a slight decrease from the previous day, and 276 in the Bay Area, a slight increase. In San Francisco, hospitalization levels were at their lowest since March, while Santa Clara and San Mateo counties hit valleys earlier in the week before going back up slightly.
Orange County, which reported its most new cases of the outbreak Thursday, has also reported its highest levels of hospitalizations the past two days, with 257 virus patients receiving care Wednesday, the third-most in the state.

With about 90% of new cases clustered in about 10 of the state’s 58 counties, a number have also been approved to accelerate their reopening. As of Friday morning, 20 counties were able to resume in-person dining and shopping: Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Lassen, Nevada, Mariposa, Placer, Plumas, San Benito, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama, Tuolumne and Yuba.
In the Bay Area, which has been under more restrictive guidelines than the state, San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, Marin, Solano and Sonoma counties all said they planned to allow more business to reopen by Monday.