California breaks records with more than 53,000 new COVID-19 cases, 293 deaths on Tuesday

The alarming number of new cases surpasses a record set just three days ago when California recorded 35,729 new cases.
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- California reported a record-breaking 53,711 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, the highest number of cases the state has seen in a single day since the pandemic began.

The alarming number of new cases surpasses a record set just three days ago when California recorded 35,729 new cases.
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The state now has 1,671,081 cases in total.

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Another 293 people died of the virus Tuesday, bringing California's death toll to 21,481, which marks the highest number of deaths in a single day.

Another 14,939 Californians remain hospitalized with the virus and 3,188 patients are in the ICU, both of which break records for the highest number of hospitalizations and intensive care patients to date.



The latest COVID-19 data comes as the Bay Area drops below the 15% ICU threshold, which forces a stay-at-home order across all counties in the region.

Most Bay Area counties are already under stay-at-home restrictions, not including San Mateo, Napa, Santa Cruz and Solano counties, which did not opt in to the health order issued earlier this month.

On Wednesday, Marin County reported it had no ICU hospital beds available, just as COVID-19 vaccines were set to be delivered today.

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The Bay Area region's ICU capacity fell to 12.7% Wednesday, meaning a stay-at-home order will take effect in the remaining counties at 11:59 p.m. Thursday.



See the latest ICU numbers here.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said that California is expecting another 393,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine next week.



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