LOS ANGELES, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- California reported 53,711 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, a record for the most populous U.S. state.
The state also reported 293 new deaths on Wednesday, bringing its death toll to 21,481.
The California Department of Public Health said the new surge was in part due to a newly implemented auto-processing feature that put more than 15,000 cases of prior days in the latest report.
"Today's case count includes 38,374 newly reported cases that are part of the continued statewide surge. The remaining 15,337 cases are from previous days," said the department.
In collaboration with counties, the state government has been automatically logging case reports by laboratories since Sunday.
Officials said the seven-day positivity rate in the state is 11.9 percent and the 14-day positivity rate is 11 percent to date.
California, home to around 40 million residents, has recorded 1,671,081 confirmed cases so far.
Meanwhile, the remaining intensive care unit (ICU) capacity in the 11-county Southern California region, which includes Los Angeles County, has dropped to 0.5 percent as of Wednesday, while the San Joaquin Valley region, which includes 12 counties in central California, is at zero available ICU capacity.
The two regions are home to around 33 million people in the most populous U.S. state, representing 84 percent of the state's population.
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported Wednesday the highest number of new COVID-19 deaths, cases and hospitalizations ever reported throughout the pandemic in the most populous county in the United States.
Local officials in the county confirmed 138 new deaths and 22,422 new cases of COVID-19. Since November 9, average daily deaths have increased nearly 600 percent, from 12 average deaths per day to more than 70 this week.
ICU capacity in the Bay Area, Greater Sacramento Region and Northern California region was also dropping on Wednesday.
In response to recent surge in new infections, California Governor Gavin Newsom earlier this month announced plans for a regional stay-at-home order based on hospital capacity, which will be triggered when fewer than 15 percent of beds are available in ICU for a region.
The 13-county Greater Sacramento Region will continue to be under the stay-at-home order as its ICU bed capacity has dropped to 14.1 percent.
The Northern California region, which includes mostly rural counties in the state, has the highest ICU availability in the state, standing at 28.1 percent.
Meanwhile, according to local authorities, the first shipment of the COVID-19 vaccines has arrived in the state, and additional shipments will continue to arrive throughout this week.
The first doses will be administered to health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities, officials added. Enditem
