COVID-19 Update: March 2, 2023

Three years ago on March 4th, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom declared California in a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 crisis. As of Tuesday, February 28th, the declaration has officially been rescinded, marking the symbolic end of the pandemic era, according to the Office of Gavin Newsom.

Over the course of the pandemic, Governor Newsom used the broad powers afforded by the State to issue many executive orders put in place to protect Californians from the virus.

Moving forward, the state will use the SMARTER Plan to address the next phase of the pandemic. According to CA.gov testing, vaccines, and treatment will continue to be available to the local communities. For more information about the Plan, visit https://covid19.ca.gov/smarter/

California reports one of the lowest rates of COVID-19 deaths in the country.

California’s COVID-19 death rate was among the lowest in the nation.

If California had Texas’ death rate, 27,000 more people would have died here.

If California had Florida’s rate, 56,000 more people would have died here.

Nationally, the COVID-19 death rate was 339 per 100,000, far above California’s rate.

California administered more than 88 million vaccines – translating to nearly 73% of the state’s population being vaccinated.

*Courtesy of CA.gov

The weekly average of COVID-19 cases has decreased by 18.1%, according to the Santa Barbara Community Data Dashboard. Community levels and hospital admissions remain low, and there have been no deaths in the week ending 2/23.