COVID-19 cases spike in Berkeley, Alameda County

In the past nine days, Berkeley has seen 35 new lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases and has gone from an average of one new case each day since the outbreak began in late February to an average of four new cases each day since June 22.

Berkeleyside has asked the city what is driving this spike but had received no response as of publication time.

Over that same nine-day period, Alameda County tallied close to 1,000 new cases (apart from Berkeley) and saw its daily average jump from 44 cases to 107.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in Alameda County (including Berkeley) have also increased in that period, going from 78 patients on June 22 to 116 as of June 30, the most recent date available. That’s a 49% increase.

ICU patients, a subset of hospitalized patients, have increased from 33 to 43, a 30% increase.

Increases across the state have been partially attributed to widely-expanded testing for COVID-19, but officials have said this does not fully explain the disturbing trend.

Berkeley has its own health department but does not release city-level data about hospitalizations or recovered cases, citing patient privacy.

See an interactive version of the chart below, which includes dates and tallies, on Berkeleyside’s daily “By the numbers” roundup of COVID-19 data.