Good morning. The rising coronavirus case count in California is maddening, in part because the effects of our sacrifices feel unclear, diffuse: We are not going into bars, most of us are wearing masks and a vast majority of us are taking the threat seriously. So why are thousands of people still getting sick every day? Where are they getting sick? And why are dozens dying?

These questions came up again and again when we asked what you wanted to know about how the pandemic is reshaping life in California, and speak to the anxieties many of us are feeling.

Finding the answers to where the virus is spreading and why can be tough, especially given the limited state of California’s contact tracing efforts.

So I spoke with Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, the vice dean for population health and health equity at the School of Medicine at U.C. San Francisco, to get her insights on why the virus continues to ravage California, and what can be done to slow its spread.

If you look at transmission rates in the Central Valley, they’re super high.

One of the biggest challenges, especially among our front-line workers is that they need both personal resources to be able to figure out how to effectively isolate and to make sure their wages are protected if they need to take time off work.

But also, there needs to be investment in the sectors that employ these low-wage workers to make sure that this is possible.