Following months of decline, California has seen a nearly 30% surge in coronavirus cases over the previous week, with lower increases in hospitalizations.
It has led some health professionals to believe that the state is on the verge of a new pandemic.
COVID-19 constraints, such as mask mandates and vaccine verification rules, have been relaxed, and new subvariants of the highly transmissible Omicron strain have emerged.
Now the question is how much higher the cases will rise and whether fresh government involvement will be required.
We're expecting a minor surge, according to Dr. Curtis Chan, that may resemble what happened in Delta last summer in early July, but it's happening now, in May.
Chan predicts an increase in hospitalizations and deaths, but not to the same extent as last winter's Omicron wave.