The local South Bay beach cities jointly hit their lowest point in terms of fewest new confirmed cases in the week ending October 18. From El Segundo to Torrance, there were just 35 cases; only seven cases in Manhattan Beach, as many as Torrance which had 48 the prior week.

The next week, Manhattan Beach had 24 new cases and Torrance was back up to 41. The aggregate for the local beach cities jumped over three fold to a weekly total of 110.

Over the next eleven weeks, this aggregate for the local beach cities rose over ten fold from 110 to 1121. The week ending January 10th saw 100 new cases in Manhattan Beach and a crest of 635 in Torrance. The average number of daily cases in Manhattan Beach that week was more than the city had the entire week at its low.

Thankfully, new confirmed cases dropped from this peak even more rapidly than the ascent. Manhattan Beach’s 100 cases dropped to 74 the next week and then down to 45 cases, a fifty-five percent decline over two weeks. In the five weeks since then, new cases in Manhattan Beach have decreased nearly 47%, down to 24 last week.

As of February 28th, weekly new cases in Manhattan Beach are down 76% from that peak seven weeks ago. Torrance is down 79% to 131 new cases last week. The aggregate of the five South Bay beach cities is down over 80% to a weekly total of 219.

So where are we right now? Of course, we’re significantly higher (more than 625%) than the aggregate low back in mid-October. Before then, the only week that the local beach cities’ aggregate total was higher than now was the peak week of the summer surge back in mid-July when there were a total of 240 new cases. There were 213 and 211 weekly cases on either side of the week ending July 12th.

Manhattan Beach’s twenty-four cases last week then compare to the city’s 21 and 23 cases for the weeks ending July 19th and July 26th, coming off that summer surge peak.

So now you know. The number of new cases got alarmingly bad in Manhattan Beach and the other local South Bay beach cities and much of Los Angeles County through December and early January. New cases are down substantially since then but they have only just dropped to a level below the peak of the summer surge. It took another fourteen weeks, over three months, after that peak to arrive at a bottom floor that we’re not even close to reaching yet. Any questions?

Many more related charts are available at the dashboard.