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It’s not enough to declare a trend, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in his daily news briefing on Thursday. Don’t make it your headline, he cautioned.

The number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units across the state had decreased to 1,132 from 1,154 the day before, he said — a 1.9 percent decline. Slight, to be sure.

“Nonetheless,” he said, “it is encouraging.”

After sharing that news, the governor sought to allay concerns from officials in some counties, including Riverside, that the state’s move to loan ventilators to other states left California’s own hospitals in a precarious spot.

“It was the right thing to do and it was the responsible thing to do as Americans,” he said. “We can’t just sit on assets when we could save lives.”