Cases spiked Tuesday for a second straight day and California reported the third-most deaths in a single 24-hour period since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The deadly respiratory illness, caused by the new coronavirus, claimed another 93 lives in the state Tuesday as California’s death toll climbed to 1,316, according to data compiled by this news organization.

The state has seen its largest increase in cases the past two days, adding nearly 2,000 on Tuesday alone to bring its total to 35,802. Patients in acute hospital beds, as well as intensive care units, rose by about 3% to 3,365 and 1,241, respectively.

In the Bay Area, however, the rate of cases and deaths has remained flat, growing about 3% per day. Statewide, the case count has grown by nearly 15% since the week began.

Those numbers would seem to indicate California has not yet turned the corner in its fight against the virus.

One widely cited model predicted the state passed its peak late last week. But there have been five days on which the state has reported more fatalities than the model projected on its deadliest day, and two since the projected peak. Researchers revised their projections Tuesday to show the state’s final death occurring May 12, with a final death toll of 1,743 (with a confidence interval from 1,340 to 2,701) — about 400 more than its total as of Tuesday.

But a lack of widespread testing has made it difficult to gauge what stage the outbreak is in. Labs in the state conducted their 300,000th test Monday, the most recent day for which data was available, but that still amounts to less than 1% of the state’s total population. Gov. Gavin Newsom set a goal of performing 25,000 tests per day, but on Tuesday, he admitted that wouldn’t be enough.

Another variable was thrown into the equation Tuesday. Officials in Santa Clara County discovered new deaths from from COVID-19 as far back as Feb. 6, a whole month before what was believed to be the first coronavirus fatality in the county and weeks before what had been thought to be the first death in the nation on Feb. 29 in the state of Washington.

“To have at least three people right around the beginning of February and late January already have the infection and two of them pass away means the virus has been around for a while,” County Executive Jeff Smith said. “It’s a much more dangerous virus than we initially recognized because we had limited testing.”

One controversial study by Stanford researchers suggested that as many as 81,000 county residents had been infected. But critics accused the researchers, who were testing for antibodies that show if a person has been infected, relied on data filled with false positives. A similar study conducted in Los Angeles County, where there were more than 15,000 confirmed cases and 663 fatalities, showed even more staggering results.

Related Articles Raiders coach Jon Gruden reveals he had coronavirus

NFL levies huge fines against Kyle Shanahan, 49ers for sideline mask violation

Sizzler restaurants pin survival hopes on Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization

More of Bay Area reaps rewards from state’s ‘Project Homekey’ to buy motels for homeless

NIH official to ‘retire’ after being ID’d as anti-Fauci author Santa Clara County, which has the most confirmed cases and deaths in the Bay Area, was one of the few jurisdictions in the region to hold off on issuing mandatory mask orders, which went into effect across six Bay Area counties on Wednesday.

Residents in San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa and Marin counties — numbering about 4.7 million — will be required to cover their faces in most public settings, or risk possible fines or misdemeanor charges. Similar orders went into effect in Sonoma and Los Angeles counties last week.