Note on the data you see when clicking on a bubble: Confirmed cases include presumptive positive cases | Recovered cases outside China are estimates based on local media reports, and may be substantially lower than the true number | Active cases = total confirmed - total recovered - total deaths.

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This post is no longer being update. Get the latest tracking numbers here >>

WHERE WE STAND

California Gov. Gavin Newsom had sobering news Saturday, saying patients needing ICU care in the state had gone up 105% overnight and hospitalizations for COVID-19 patients had risen nearly 40%.

Newsom spoke Saturday from of a Bay-area fuel cell plant that's now working to refurbish ventilators. He said the state now has more than 400 COVID-19 ICU patients. He called that number "relatively modest" but warned that as new confirmed cases continue the percentage increase was of deep concern.

The uptick in California cases came as the U.S. and Italy are now both reporting more confirmed COVID-19 cases than China, where the outbreak began late last year. The U.S. is now reporting more than 124,000 cases of the 664,924 worldwide as of 10 p.m. Saturday.

As of Saturday afternoon, L.A. County is reporting more than 1,800 cases with 22% of patients requiring hospitalization.

And the local mortality rate continues to tick up. Earlier in the week, it was 1%, then 1.6% and as of yesterday was at 1.8%. That rate is higher than the nationwide average and significantly higher than what we experience with annual flu cases. Keep in mind, it partially reflects the who is being tested at this point.

The county reported 344 new confirmed cases Saturday. That includes six new COVID-19 related deaths.

WORLDWIDE

The U.S. is among a number of countries experiencing large-scale outbreaks. The map at the top of this post shows cumulative confirmed cases, deaths and recoveries and is updated in near real-time throughout the day. Zoom out to see more of the world.

As of 10 p.m. Saturday, here are the total confirmed cases for the 10 countries currently facing the worst outbreaks. [Note: For the first time since we've been posting these numbers the Netherlands is in the top 10, dropping South Korea to 11th]:

124,665 United States | pop. 327M

92,472 Italy | pop. 60.6M 82,057 China | pop. 1.4B 73,235 Spain | pop. 47M 57,695 Germany | pop. 83M 38,105 France | pop. 65M 35,408 Iran | pop. 82M 17,312 United Kingdom | pop. 67M 14,076 Switzerland | pop. 8.5M 9,819 Netherlands | pop. 17M

These numbers are changing rapidly and experts have warned that confirmed cases are far under the actual total of infected individuals. For more detail check the full tracker, which includes death tolls and projections of cases on the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering site. Engineers there are collecting data from:

IN CALIFORNIA

Statewide, our friends on the L.A. Times data desk are tracking cases in California by surveying "numbers released by the dozens of local health agencies across the state." As of 10:30 p.m. Saturday, the newspaper is reporting California has:

5,683 c onfirmed cases

onfirmed cases 121 deaths

[Note: If you hit a paywall on the full tracker, please consider subscribing. They have a $1 for eight weeks special. We don't have a paywall but we do count on member support to run our newsroom.]

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AT A GLANCE

Health officials here continue to stress that they are seeing most cases in people under the age of 65. L.A. County's Public Health director Barbara Ferrer has said 80% of the cases have been people between 18-65, and 42% have been people between 18-40.

Earlier this week, when the local mortality rate was at 1%, Ferrer told us:

"You can imagine if we have thousands and thousands and thousands of people infected, then 1% becomes a large number. And every single person who dies like that's a story, that's a loved one. That's a person who other people care about and they're gonna miss."

Current as of Saturday

LA COUNTY

1,804 cases

cases 32 deaths*

* An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported 232 deaths. See more from L.A. County

ORANGE COUNTY

403 cases

4 death

* More from Orange County

RIVERSIDE COUNTY

195 cases

cases 8 deaths

* More from Riverside County

VENTURA COUNTY

98 cases

cases 3 death

* More from Ventura County

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY

76 cases

cases 3 death

* More from San Bernardino County

FLATTEN THE CURVE

As new cases continue to be confirmed, Californians are a week into "safer at home" and "social distancing" orders. Last Thursday, state and county officials ordered the vast majority of Californians to strictly limit interactions with other people, wash hands frequently, and stay six feet away from others.

Remember, the goal of social distancing is to "flatten the curve" of COVID-19's spread.

Source: CDC, Drew Harris (Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR)

The more we can slow the rate of infection, the less overwhelmed the hospital system will be.

Here's a look at nine scenarios over six, nine, and 12 months from our friends at ProPublica:

(Courtesy of ProPublica)

And here's the impact on California hospitals:

(Courtesy of ProPublica)

SOME STRAIGHT TALK ABOUT COVID-19



We're all living through this extraordinary and frightening pandemic. The vast majority of our newsroom has been working from home (here's some advice on that) since March 11 to bring you calm, helpful reporting. We are answering your questions and taking more.

We're here to help. And if you can help support that effort financially, we'd be grateful.