The California Department of Public Health drastically curtailed the kind of coronavirus data it is sharing with the public this week — including the number of health care workers who test positive for COVID-19 each day — at a time when the public is hungry for the information.

To the consternation of health care workers who say infection details are crucial to tracking and halting the pandemic, the state health department announced Monday that it will report only the running total number of statewide infections every day, rather than breaking down where they came from. That previously included cases acquired through community spread, from person to person, or by traveling from a hotspot.

The department said it made the change to “better focus public health resources on the changing needs of California communities.”

The number of infected health care workers in California jumped 52% in one day — from 48 to 73 — between Friday and Saturday, the last time the state reported the numbers. Before then, the numbers climbed by roughly six cases a day since March 24, when reporting began.

Asked to explain further, the department issued a statement saying, “We are closely monitoring outbreaks, as well as the impact of COVID-19 on our critical healthcare workforce.”

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“That is bulls—-," Christa Duran, a nurse at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, said of the new approach to restricting data. “It’s so they don't have to see the alarming results from not protecting us properly.”

Two unions representing thousands of health care workers in California demanded that the data be released to highlight what they said was the dire need for personal protective equipment, called PPE.

“Obviously those numbers are going to tell the grim story about the lack of PPE that health care workers aren’t getting,” said Stephanie Roberson, government relations director for the California Nurses Assocation that represents more than 100,000 nurses in the state.

Reporting more transparently would also “increase the pressure on the powers that be to step up the production of PPE and get it into the hospitals,” said Steve Trossman, spokesman for the Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers West, which represents 97,000 hospital workers.

The state health department’s daily releases continue to report the number of confirmed cases, including ages and genders of patients, deaths, and tests conducted and their results.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 doubled in the last four days. As of Sunday, California had 1,432 people in the hospital with the coronavirus, including 597 in intensive-care units, the governor said. Another 3,494 people believed to have COVID-19 - but whose tests haven’t come back yet - were hospitalized, including 602 in intensive care.

Chronicle staff writer Trisha Thadani contributed to this report.

Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench