COVID-19 rises among California’s young population

California has more than 530,000 confirmed coronavirus cases so far. Without a vaccine, that number will continue to grow into fall and potentially winter.

California is still struggling to report accurate testing numbers, which is affecting state and local responses. LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer recently said that infection rates among people ages 18 through 29 have quadrupled between June and late July. People in the 18-29 age group now represent twice the percentage of hospitalized COVID-19 patients as in April.

“It’s not anything the virus is doing. It’s entirely the things that we humans are doing. Now where we’re seeing more [people] spread out in the community, the people who are getting it … maybe are not as good at the social distancing,” says Paula Cannon, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Keck School of Medicine of USC.

And efforts to develop a safe and effective vaccine are still a long way off from being readily available and mass produced.