(CNN) -
California just became the second state to surpass 1 million COVID-19 infections since the start of the pandemic, closely following Texas, which reached the grim milestone earlier this week.
More than 5,000 new cases and 18 new deaths have been reported so far on Thursday, for a total of 1,000,631 confirmed cases and 18,126 deaths statewide, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Health officials report that like most other states in the country, California's covid-19 numbers are going in the wrong direction.
Texas is the first US state to reach 1 million cases of covid-19
At a press conference on November 9, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the state recorded more than 7,200 new cases in one day and had a 7-day average of about 5,889 infections.
"That number was familiar four to six weeks ago, but since early October, when we were able to drop those numbers below 3,000, we haven't seen a 7-day average above 5,800 in quite some time," Newsom said.
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A day later, California Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Mark Ghaly announced that the state's 7-day average was 6,078 covid.
These high numbers are due to a new forecast from the Policy Laboratory at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia projects that major cities in California will have "significant growth in cases through mid-December."
People wait in line to get tested at a covid-19 testing site in Los Angeles on November 10, 2020.
UCI admissions increase in California due to covid
Hospitalizations in the state have also started to rise, Ghaly said.
The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients had increased by 31.6% over a 14-day period, Ghaly said Tuesday.
"This really higher number of cases that we have seen in the next few days will not manifest or become patients in hospitals for another two to three weeks," Ghaly said.
ICU hospitalizations have also increased, Ghaly said, increasing nearly 30% in two weeks.
"As we see the number of hospitals increasing due to the number of cases that has increased, we also know that we will see an increase in ICU hospitalizations."
In his press conference, the governor said that covid-19 hospitalizations on Monday represented about 4% of the total capacity of the state's health care system, and ICU admissions accounted for about 11% of the total number of beds available in the ICU.
The state still has more than 20,000 fans available, Newsom said.
“Obviously these numbers are sobering, but again, the total capacity that we built, the capacity to test, is substantially greater than it was just a few weeks ago, let alone a few months ago, and the extensive inventory of… equipment from personal protection is significant, "added the governor.
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"We have to watch closely"
Officials also announced this week that three more counties are returning to the most restrictive level in the state, indicating a pervasive risk of COVID-19: Sacramento, San Diego and Stanislaus counties.
The tier system is the framework that California has established that helps health officials determine which counties should tighten or relax restrictions based on certain criteria, including test positivity, adjusted case rate, and the metric of equity in health.
Eight other counties also fell one notch, indicating a substantial or moderate risk in their area.
With the state's numbers on the rise, no county is moving toward less restrictive levels this week.
“In fact, several counties are experiencing quite high levels of cases, not necessarily the highest they have ever seen, but certainly compared to the lows that we have been experiencing in recent months ... we are certainly seeing a trajectory almost across the state. ascending, ”said Ghaly.
"That worries us."
It is the first week since counties began moving to less restrictive levels that no county advanced, he added.
"We anticipate that if things continue as they are, that between this week and next more than half of the counties in California will have moved to a more restrictive level," he said.
"That certainly is an indication that we are concerned, and we have to be vigilant about what is happening."
- CNN's Haley Brink and Dakin Andone contributed to this report.
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