Central Coast Covid-19 positivity rates rise, in line with state-wide rise in positive cases

CENTRAL COAST, Calif. (KION-TV)- The United States and California may have long moved passed the COVID-19 pandemic, however, that doesn't mean positive cases are not still rising. In the past seven days, the positivity rate has gone up to 10.1%, a 2.1% increase in that time frame.

The COVID-19 California dashboard does say that testing for COVID-19 has gone down significantly from over 155 tests per 100k people to just 32 tests per 100k people in the last seven days.

Monterey County test positivity has risen by 2.4% to 8%, by 0.4% to 10.7% in Santa Cruz County, and in San Benito County by 9.9% to 15.5%. Currently, this has not shown a correlation to a spike in hospitalizations on the Central Coast.

Recently a new COVID-10 strain, EG.5, has also overtaken Omicron as the dominant strain.

To date, cases associated with the new variant have been reported in the United Kingdom, United States and elsewhere.

The latest data from the UK Health Security Agency suggests that EG.5 makes up approximately 14.6 percent — or one in seven — of all COVID-19 cases in the U.K.

Expert says Canada will see a rise in cases by late August The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that EG.5 accounted for roughly 17.3 percent — or one in six — of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. in the past two weeks.