CA Announces Highest Daily Coronavirus Deaths

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, announced that the state had its highest jump in COVID-19 deaths on April 23.

There were 115 deaths over the past 24 hours, bringing the total statewide death total to 1,469. Additionally, there was a 5.6% increase in new cases, bringing the statewide total to 37,378 confirmed cases.

However, there was a 0.4% decline in hospitalizations and a 1.2% decline in intensive care unit (ICU) patients.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Newsom said. “I know there’s a deep desire, people are making calls on an hourly basis, saying it’s time to open back up — consider the deadliest day in the state of California the last 24 hours.”

In Los Angeles County, there were 68 COVID-19 deaths and 1,081 confirmed cases on April 23, bringing the county total to 797 and 17,508, respectively. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer pointed out that more than 50% of the new cases were asymptomatic.

FiveThirtyEight Editor-in-Chief Nate Silver tweeted on April 22 that California’s COVID-19 numbers are difficult to analyze because of “substantial lags in reporting,” although he thinks it’s “likely that the situation in California is improving.”

California has some of the worst data in the country. Substantial lags in reporting, very hard to get a handle on its testing situation. https://t.co/PuN8N7a7rH

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 23, 2020

It is *likely* that the situation in California is improving, but the state's data is such a mess that I'm not sure we'd really know if it wasn't.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 23, 2020

According to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), California could start easing the shelter-in-place order on May 17. Newsom has yet to provide a timeframe on this matter.