COVID-19 surges across multiple states as California numbers continue to drop

SAN FRANCISCO -- California has the best COVID-19 positivity rate in the country. But as this good news comes, there is also bad news as other states like Michigan are dealing with a surge of cases.

"There's almost a tale of two cases right now, how to prevent cases, to how to see cases rise and we definitely don't want to see the latter," says Dr. Alok Patel of ABC7's Vaccine Team. Patel is referring to masked crowds we've seen in San Francisco -- where the COVID-19 positivity rate is 1% -- and places where we've seen COVID-19 surges like Miami, Florida -- where there are unmasked crowds and a positivity rate of 10%.

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"I won't get concerned as long as they don't come here," says Markeigh Ford of San Francisco.

Doctors that we talked with are concerned though, saying that the largest surges we're seeing across the country involve young people who have expanded their bubbles and now could be facing new variants.

"By in large, young individuals in this country are not vaccinated and I'm not just talking about those who are below the age of 16 who aren't approved. I'm also talking about those under the age of 30," says Patel.

Stanford's Dr. Grace Lee says it's a race against time to get the vaccine out there and better prepare everyone for any possible 4th surge in California.

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"Until we can vaccinate the population that is continuing to have high rates of infection, which is really our young adult population, it's gonna be really hard to prevent the spread or transmission of the COVID-19 infection," says Dr. Lee.

Monday night, those we spoke with in San Francisco said they feel that those here in the Bay Area have been more cautious than other places and are therefore better prepared.

"Yes for sure, I mean people are more educated here and they take more precautions in general," said Tisha Dutta and Shuvhan Doel of San Francisco.

Doctors just hopeful that Californians keep their guard up as numbers continue to drop here but rise elsewhere.

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