California posted its biggest daily rise of coronavirus deaths on Friday as the number of people who died from the disease over the past 24 hours in the state reached 159. The total number of deaths from COVID-19 in the state now stands above 8,000, the California Public Health Department confirmed. 9,718 new coronavirus patients were registered over the past 24 hours. California is now the worst-hit US state by COVID-19 as the total number of registered cases in the Golden State surpasses total cases recorded in New York. Four counties in Southern California each reported at least 20 deaths, while the entire Bay Area recorded seven. The statewide seven-day average rose over 100 for the second time of the pandemic to 101 deaths per day over the past week, 60% higher than a month ago. The statewide case count grew by 9,725 keeping that seven-day average steady at about 9,660 cases per day. Its seven-day positivity rate has begun to move in the wrong direction after briefly plateauing around 7% — on Thursday it hit 8%, a threshold Gov. Gavin Newsom and state health officials have identified to stay below. The average number of new cases has increased 112% in a month (4,562 per day vs. 9,660), while the number of tests has increased by about 53% (79,880 per day vs. 122,000). In that time, hospitalizations statewide have also more than doubled, to 7,171 as of Tuesday. There was a steep drop off Wednesday to 6,825 hospitalized patients according to the state, but officials attributed that to a change in the reporting system that resulted in historical data from 39 facilities not being included. There hadn’t been a single-day decrease in patients of that magnitude, about 4.8%, up to this point; even the largest single-day increase was about 3%. Meanwhile, intensive care units in 12 counties were reported to be at or near capacity by the state health department on Thursday. Less than 20% of ICU beds were available in the following counties: San Benito (100% full), Kings (93.8%), Fresno (92.9%), Placer (88.2%) San Joaquin (86.4%), Sacramento (86.4%), Madera (84.6%), Merced (83.7%), Stanislaus (84.6%), Tulare (82.5%), Imperial (82.4%) and Butte (81.6%). That data has fluctuated significantly, from eight counties on Monday to four Wednesday, up to 12 in its most recent update. But the majority of those listed have been where cases and hospitalizations have been rising faster than elsewhere in the state. All those listed with the exception of Imperial, Butte and Placer counties border each other in the Sacramento-San Joaquin valleys. The number of patients hospitalized in those nine counties has more than tripled (313%) in the past month to 1,269 as of Tuesday, or about 25.38 per 100,000 residents, almost three times the rate of the Bay Area (9.5 per 100,000) and even more than Los Angeles County (22.1 per 100,000). Once again, Los Angeles accounted for the largest share of the state’s death toll with 49 new fatalities Friday. But it was a slightly smaller percentage of the total deaths because neighboring counties also reporting at least 20 COVID-19 deaths: Orange (22), San Bernardino (21) and Riverside (20). In the Bay Area, San Francisco and Alameda counties each reported two new fatalities, followed by one apiece in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Napa counties. The seven-day average of deaths here (8.29 per day) continued to rise higher than it has been since April 26 but remained well below other areas of the state. Los Angeles, with about 10 million residents vs. the Bay’s 8 million, has reported about 40 deaths per day over the past week; it’s been 30 per day in surrounding Southern California counties, population 11.3 million; in a swath of Central California, almost twice as many people are dying each day from the virus, despite a population 2 million smaller than the Bay Area. After its latest morbid record, the state’s death toll stood at 8,178, according to data compiled by this news organization. Of those, 52% have occurred in Los Angeles County, despite it accounting for about a quarter of the state’s population. The Bay Area, which has about 20% of California’s population, accounts for about 9% of its death toll to date. California surpassed New York for the most total cases earlier this week, though it also has about twice the population. Its cumulative case count stood at 431,664 on Thursday, the same day the country went over 4 million total cases.