California surpasses 30,000 coronavirus cases; 1,146 deaths confirmed

Just a day after the Bay Area’s deadliest Saturday during the coronavirus pandemic, state officials confirmed California surpassed 30,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus.

As the virus continued to spread and threaten the state’s 39.7 million residents, new numbers compiled by this news organization show 30,754 people are confirmed to have COVID-19 and 1,146 have died, up from 29,348 confirmed cases and 1,050 deaths at the end of Friday.

The news came just hours after it was reported that state health officials had found COVID-19 cases on dozens of Bay Area nursing homes.

The startling state figures show that 34 nursing homes in seven Bay Area counties have confirmed cases of coronavirus. Of the 1,224 skilled nursing facilities in California, 261 have reported one or more COVID-19 cases by either a resident or staff member as of Friday.

But nurses and medical staff aren’t the only essential workers getting sick across the state.

As much of California took a position behind the closed doors of home, sheltering in place in an effort to reduce the spread of the deadly coronavirus, others took their stance on the front lines.

Day care workers, police officers, grocery store clerks, gas station attendants, firefighters, community advocates, journalists, nurses, doctors, bus drivers — all working jobs considered essential to keep life on the outside going. The Mercury News sat down with some of them to tell their stories.