The State Department of Public Health said on Friday that more than 47,000 new confirmed cases have been reported, bringing the total to more than 2.29 million.
Hospitals across the state ended the year on “the brink of catastrophe,” a health official said as the pandemic pushed deaths and illness to dizzying levels and some medical centers rushed to deliver oxygen to the seriously ill.
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Governor Gavin Newsom’s office announced Friday that California would partner with the US Army Corps of Engineers to evaluate and upgrade legacy oxygen delivery systems at six Los Angeles hospitals.
The collaboration is because older hospitals are struggling to maintain oxygen pressure in aging infrastructure, and some rushed to find additional oxygen tanks for discharged patients to take home.
California became the third state this week with more than 25,000 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic outbreak.
The capacity of the ICU beds in Southern California still remains at 0%.
“We’re out of capacity in the ICU. We’re creating spaces from scratch,” said Olena Svetlov, MSN, RN at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
The rest of the state is not doing much better. The San Joaquin Valley is also at 0% ICU availability. The Bay Area is down to 6% and Sacramento is 11%.
Los Angeles County reported more than 20,000 new cases and more than 200 deaths on Friday.
LA County officials reported a death every 10 minutes and pleaded with people on social media to stay home and stay safe.
But many ignored those New Year’s Eve pleas, with some public rallies in Southern California.
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On Friday, the LA County Sheriff’s Department announced their “super-spreader” task force, which made 90 arrests in five different locations last night.
Actor Kirk Cameron hosted another maskless rally on Thursday, where groups of people were seen on Point Mugu beach for a faith-based event.
It was a similar scene in Valencia, where hundreds had packed a parking space to ring in the New Year. Few who attended the open-air concert, hosted by Christian activist Sean Feucht, at the Higher Vision Church wore masks or were physically aloof.
Car enthusiasts gathered in Pasadena for their annual New Year’s Eve Rose Parade cruise, even though the world-famous show had been canceled.
“It’s hard not to make that correlation between those vacations and the spike we see shortly after,” said Shane Reichardt of the Riverside County Office of Emergency Management Department.
Meanwhile, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US surpassed 20 million Friday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
RELATED: US Hits 20 Million In COVID-19 Cases
That’s almost twice the number of the second country, India, and nearly a quarter of the more than 83 million cases worldwide.
The US continued to outpace other countries in COVID-19 cases, reaching 20 million by the start of the new year, according to data tracked by Johns Hopkins University.
COVID-19 deaths have also increased in the country, now totaling more than 346,000.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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