(Esparto, CA) — A high school in Yolo County is cancelling tonight’s football game because of a COVID-19 outbreak. Esparto High School is missing too many players due to COVID or injuries. Seven players are hurt and six have COVID, meaning they can’t make the trip to face Amador High School. It’s the second time this has happened in California this week. Santa Paula High School in Ventura County also cancelled tonight’s game because of a COVID outbreak affecting the football and cheerleading teams.

California’s summer COVID wave is reaching heights not seen in more than a year as highly contagious strains of the virus continue to spread with the promise of a new vaccine days away. Since federal and state authorities have stopped tracking COVID case counts, the percentage of lab-processed COVID tests that are positive has become one of the best indicators of how much the virus is spreading in the community, similar to how influenza has been tracked historically.

California hospitalizations have increased in the past several weeks, but they are still far from record highs, with 1,600 hospitalized COVID patients last week compared to over 20,000 in the first winter surge in late 2020 and early 2021.

As of early August, there had been no notable increase in deaths due to the disease.