Coronavirus: Bay Area’s deadliest week of pandemic fueled by Alameda County

The 121 deaths in the Bay Area over the past week are the most the region has experienced during any seven-day period of the pandemic. Since the start of the month, Alameda County has accounted for 46% of the reported fatalities in the region, including a record Tuesday.

An influx of fatalities in Alameda County has made the past week the deadliest of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Bay Area.

The region neared a daily death record Tuesday with 37 fatalities from the virus reported between its nine counties, according to data compiled by this news organization, including a record 24 in Alameda County, which took its seven-day average to a new high: more than 17 deaths per day, or a total of 121 over the past week.

Statewide, any progress made in flattening in the death curve in the past two weeks has been erased. The 151 new fatalities reported Tuesday increased the state’s seven-day average to more than 109 deaths per day, or a total of 765, over the past week. It was the most deaths in a seven-day period since the one that ended Sept. 6 and a 26% increase from a recent low set last Thursday.

While California as a whole is on pace to remain below August’s record-setting death toll, the Bay Area has already recorded 69% of its total in August, with 216 coronavirus deaths in the first two weeks of September. It has almost doubled the average number of daily deaths from two weeks ago, up 47%, and eclipsed the previous high set during the week that ended Sept. 5.

Alameda County is responsible for 46%, or 99, of the Bay Area’s recorded deaths since the start of September, according to data compiled by this news organization, which tracks cases and deaths by the date they were reported. Its health department, however, tracks deaths by their actual date and has a count of 21 since the first of the month and hasn’t added any since last Friday.

Alameda County has reported 12 or more fatalities on five separate occasions since the month began, according to data compiled by this news organization, but its health department says the county’s most deaths in a single day came Aug. 24, when its data says eight county residents perished from the virus. No other county in the Bay Area has reported 12 deaths on a single day of the pandemic, and Alameda County had not prior to September, according to this news organization’s analysis.

The Alameda County Health Department did not respond to questions in time for publication, but its dashboard says it can take up to a week to enter deaths into its system.

On Monday, the county became the first in the Bay Area with 20,000 total cases. Its data show many of those are concentrated in the heavily Black and Latinx neighborhoods of East Oakland, however it does not break down deaths by zip code.

Race and ethnicity data show a disproportionate number of fatalities among the county’s Black and Latinx populations. Black residents make up about 11% of its population but 20% of its deaths, while Latinx residents account for about 22% of the population and the largest share of coronavirus deaths in the county: 31% — similar to disparities seen in statewide data.

Alameda and Sonoma counties have two of the highest per-capita death rates over the past two weeks, each with about 6 for every 100,000 residents. That’s a rate nearly double the statewide figure and more than four times higher than their neighboring counties.

The per-capita rates in Alameda and Sonoma counties are about equal to those in the San Joaquin Valley, which at its peak reported the highest rate in California but has since cut it almost in half.

Overall, Alameda County accounted for the second-most deaths in the state Tuesday, behind only far more populous Los Angeles County, which reported 42 additional fatalities, increasing its nation-leading total to 6,273. Orange County also reported 12 new fatalities, while there were 11 in Fresno, eight in San Diego and seven in Riverside counties.

Santa Clara, with four deaths Tuesday, reported the next-highest total in the Bay Area, followed by three in San Mateo County and two each in Contra Costa, Solano and Sonoma counties.

Santa Clara also accounts for the next-largest share of the region’s coronavirus deaths since Sept. 1, behind Alameda County. It has reported 39 fatalities in the past two weeks — about in line with its population — followed by 30 in Sonoma and 15 in Contra Costa County. No other county in the region has reported more than 10 deaths in that time.

Even as deaths increase, the number of cases appears to be steadily low in the region and the state.

There were 2,805 new cases statewide Tuesday, including 468 in the Bay Area, decreasing their respective seven-day averages to about 3,425 and 584 cases per day. The Bay Area has decreased its averages daily case count by 34% from two weeks ago, slightly outpacing the statewide decline of about 31.5% over that time.

The overall death toll in California has grown to 14,612, according to data compiled by this news organization. According to the New York Times, the death toll in Texas has surpassed California’s for the third-highest in the nation. The national death toll, just south of 200,000, is the highest of any developed country.