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California is nearing 80% vaccinated.
Data indicates 79% of people five years old and up have gotten at least one shot. California health officials are reporting a post-Christmas surge of COVID-19 in the state, now the first in the nation to record more than 5 million infections. California recorded 4,378 coronavirus-positive patients in hospitals Monday, an increase of 377 from the day before. The number of Californians hospitalized with COVID-19 has swelled by nearly 25% since Dec. 20, largely due to holiday traveling.
“Our case rates are going up incredibly fast, and some proportion of people that get sick will require a hospital bed,” Dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County public health director and health officer, said during a news conference Tuesday.
From Dec. 2 to 8 — the week after Omicron was first detected in California — unvaccinated Californians were nearly eight times more likely to be infected than their fully vaccinated counterparts, state data show.