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Newsom Says California Is 'Moving in the Right Direction' on COVID-19 Response

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Gov. Gavin Newsom says the shrinking number of Californians hospitalized with COVID-19 is an "encouraging" sign that the state is moving past its summer coronavirus spike.

Newsom's optimism at a Wednesday press briefing came as the governor seeks to avoid a repeat of the reopening he allowed this spring — when virus restrictions were quickly lifted and followed by a surge of infections and new business closures.

"Even if we modify [restrictions], we have to maintain our vigilance and we’ll need a commensurate public awareness campaign and enforcement campaign with any subsequent modifications," Newsom said.

When the state initially began to ease stay-at-home restrictions in May, county reopenings outpaced the Newsom administration's own benchmarks, and infections quickly stretched the capacity of the state's testing and contact tracing systems.

Any future reopening of the economy, Newsom said, will have to be accompanied by an increased observance of mitigation measures, like mask wearing, that has slowed the spread of the coronavirus.

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“What we are doing as a state, what you are doing is working," Newsom said. "Wearing those face masks is responsible, I believe disproportionately, for this trend line."

Over the last two weeks, the number of Californians hospitalized with COVID-19 has fallen 19%, while the number of ICU admittances due to the virus has dropped by 16%.

"This is what gives me confidence that we’re moving in the right direction," Newsom said.

While hospitalizations present a lagging indicator of the virus' impact on the state, tracking the spread of infections in recent days has been complicated by a data problem that caused nearly 300,000 test records to go unreported in a state system.

On Wednesday, Newsom detailed the complicated process of adding backlogged cases to the state's total.

Old cases will initially be reported with the day's new infections — resulting in an artificially high count of 11,645 "new" cases on Wednesday — before eventually being reallocated to the day the infection was reported.

Newsom's explanation came at the tail end of a lengthy presentation on the administration's economic initiatives and goals.

"If you’re following me, I’m impressed and grateful," he said.

— Guy Marzorati (@GuyMarzorati)

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