San Francisco, Oct 6 (IANS): California Governor Gavin Newsom said although the Covid-19 situation in the state was stable, he warned of a potential second Covid-19 wave due to the recent spike in the number of new confirmed cases across the US.
"As of this morning, 21 states have seen an increase in transmission rate of Covid-19," the SF Gate news website quoted Newsom as saying in a virtual briefing on Monday.
"We're seeing this, by the way, not just across the country. You're seeing this increasingly around the world. Take a look at the headlines in France out of Paris today and what's happening in the UK. What's been happening in Israel and what Germany is projecting and is concerned about.
"This is the second wave that many had predicted based on our closest approximate frame, and that's what occurred in 1918 and 1919.
"That was an instructive example of what can happen if we let our guard down here. The prospect of a second wave," the Governor was quoted as saying.
Newsom further said that the second wave could even be more severe than the first surge that peaked in California over the summer.
"That's why we have to be very vigilant and that's why we have to be very sober about what's going on," SF Gate cited the Governor as saying in the briefing.
The state's 14-day decrease in hospitalizations was 15% per cent on Monday. A week ago this number was at about 20 per cent.
"If we start to see an increase in cases, invariably you'll see an increase in hospitalizations," Newsom explained, adding that it takes 20-30 days to see upticks in hospitalizations and in the ICUs.
As of Monday, California's 14-day positivity rate stood at 2.8 per cent, more than half of the 7.6 per cent record high in July.
Meanwhile, 18 counties in the state were currently place in in the most restrictive purple tier, 22 in red, 15 in orange and three in the least stringent yellow tier.
The state will update county tier assignments on Tuesday.
Out of the US' overall Covid-19 caseload of 7,455,184, California currently accounts for more than 838,000 infections.
While the nationwide death toll has climbed to 210,155, California's stood at 16,177.
As of Tuesday, the US continued to be the worst-hit country in the world with the highest number of cases and deaths.