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# Gov. Gavin Newsom Faces Another COVID-19 Conundrum
July 26 2021
Written by Emily Hoeven.
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CAL MATTERS - A little more than a month after California fully reopened, the state’s coronavirus positivity rate has skyrocketed from [0.7%](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=347b1e17de&e=be99ddd110) to [5.2%](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=7fe76e27a3&e=be99ddd110) — a figure not seen since early February.
The highly contagious Delta variant now accounts for [nearly 83% of California’s sequenced coronavirus cases](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=8d40664aac&e=be99ddd110) — up from 53% in late June and just 6% in late May. The color-coded reopening system is gone, but if it were still in place, [at least 12 counties would be in the most restrictive purple tier](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=d280e26eb2&e=be99ddd110). And California’s mask mandate is over, but local health officials are either requiring or recommending [around 50% of the state’s population](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=e8959db636&e=be99ddd110) wear face coverings indoors.
With [the Sept. 14 recall election](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=4f4007c227&e=be99ddd110) hanging over his head, Newsom has avoided commenting directly on whether he would reinstate mask requirements or lockdown measures, instead [emphasizing the importance of getting vaccinated](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=5e3cbdbd11&e=be99ddd110). The coronavirus case rate among vaccinated Californians was 2 per 100,000 during the week of July 7-14, compared to 13 per 100,000 among unvaccinated Californians, [the state Department of Public Health said Friday](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=c5092cf587&e=be99ddd110). The department also noted that Newsom’s vaccine lottery program [slowed the rate at which California’s inoculation rates were declining](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=324d1119af&e=be99ddd110).
Still, [COVID is spreading fast](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=3c91feb645&e=be99ddd110) even [in counties with high inoculation rates](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=2f98614dbc&e=be99ddd110) — a trend experts attribute to high-density urban settings that bring people into contact with both unvaccinated residents and fully vaccinated people who may be asymptomatically passing the disease.
- [Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a UCSF epidemiology professor](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=1ef9f84da8&e=be99ddd110)**:** “The challenge in public health communication is we ultimately do want more people to be vaccinated. And the concern is communicating that we also need to wear a mask right now … (which may) dilute the message that we need to be vaccinated. The challenge is that both things are true.”
Perhaps the ultimate challenge facing California’s leaders: charting a long-term response to a virus that “will be with us chronically,” [in the words of Solano County Public Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=7b007119f1&e=be99ddd110).
The first hurdle on the horizon: [fall school reopenings](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=cf671c893e&e=be99ddd110). California parent groups [last week sued Newsom](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=55b23fb263&e=be99ddd110) over a requirement issued last week that all students wear masks to school, and [a federal appeals court ruled Friday](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=f95061eca2&e=be99ddd110) that [California violated parents’ rights](https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e4547&id=3d32ddaf78&e=be99ddd110) by keeping private schools closed amid the pandemic.
*(Emily Hoeven is an award-winning writer, reporter and editor for CalMatters where this story was first posted.)*
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