California now has more than 10,000 contact tracing staff members to help limit the spread of COVID-19 — roughly 1,800 of those are bilingual, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday.
The news was announced as Newsom delivered an update on COVID-19 in the state. He said all of the workers will help cut down transmission and keep COVID-19 numbers low.
“Now we're averaging over 125,000 daily tests," he said. "Over this weekend we were averaging a little north of 150,000 tests.”
The seven day average across the state is now 3,321 cases per day. In the past 14 days, 2.6% of all tests have been positive. Hospitalizations and ICU admissions have also decreased over the past two weeks.
“Accordingly we have made progress on our tiered status, now 42 counties of the 58 have moved out of that lower tier, the most restrictive tier, the purple tier,” Newsom said.
The state will issue updated Halloween guidelines Tuesday.
Newsom also spoke about the state's response to wildfires.
The upcoming week will bring unseasonably hot temperatures and strong winds to parts of California. The state has already had one of the worst fire seasons on record, and it's just the middle of October.
“Some 4.1 million acres have now burned in the state of California," Newsom said. "We are currently dealing with 14 major wildfires and/or fire complexes."
So far 31 people were killed in the state's wildfires and roughly 9,300 structures were lost.
