California reports lowest COVID-19 case rate in the country
CBSN
California, which at one point was the country's epicenter of COVID-19, is now the state reporting the lowest positivity rate per 100,000 people, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. As of Saturday evening, 24.99 new confirmed cases were reported for every 100,000 people in California, Johns Hopkins University data found.
The state reported a daily average of 8,172 new cases over the past eight weeks, and averaged 92 deaths due to COVID-19 complications per day during that same time period, according to the California Department of Health. As of Saturday, more than 77% of California's population is vaccinated, according to the state's Health Department.
On Wednesday, California was one of three states to decrease from a high virus community transmission level to substantial, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, as of Saturday, California's transmission rate returned to high, with only Modoc County, Lassen County, Sierra County and Mono County reporting low transmission rates.
Two climbers were waiting to be rescued near the peak of Denali, a colossal mountain that towers over miles of vast tundra in southern Alaska, officials said Wednesday. Originally part of a three-person team that became stranded near the top of the mountain, the climbers put out a distress call more than 30 hours earlier suggesting they were hypothermic and unable to descend on their own, according to the National Park Service.
There's no making up for what Olympic hurdler Lashinda Demus lost on the day she finished .07 seconds behind a Russian opponent who, everyone later learned, was doping. What the American 400-meter hurdles champion will finally receive is a great day under the Eiffel Tower where she'll be presented with the gold medal she was denied 12 years ago at the London Olympics.