There are now 98 of the trailers to help county coroners store bodies “with respect and dignity,” said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the Emergency Services. In Los Angeles County, where, on average, someone dies every 6 minutes, temporary storage facilities have been set up in the parking lot next to the coroner’s office.
The Office of Emergency Services uses state hospital admission data to anticipate the number of people who could die in the coming weeks. The state is analyzing multiple models to predict hospital admissions and deaths. The “ensemble” projection that combines all models estimates that another 10,000 people will die in the next three weeks.
It may take at least two weeks for the state to know the full extent of the damage from the virus during the holiday season, when many people ignored pleas to stay at home and not get together with friends and extended family. On average, about 12% of everyone who tests positive ends up in the hospital, so if there is a wave of new cases, it will further overwhelm hospitals. And eventually more people will die.
Ghilarducci said the state has triggered its “mass death management plan” to try to avoid large backups in morgues.
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“It is important to know that there is a plan, that it is in progress and that it is active today,” said Ghilarducci. “We will continue to work with each of our 58 counties to ensure that all of these people are cared for in the most respectful way.”
The grim prediction contrasted with a cheery press conference held Friday by Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti and Governor Gavin Newsom at Dodger Stadium, which is being converted into a vaccination center capable of administering 12,000 doses per day.
California has received more than 3.5 million doses of the vaccine and administered just over 1 million doses. Newsom said the state was on track to exceed its goal of dispensing about 1.5 million doses by Friday.
Newsom tried to shed light on encouraging trends: Hospitalizations, intensive care admissions, and positivity rates – the percentage of people tested who have the virus – have all declined in the past seven days.
The numbers were enough for the Newsom administration earlier this week to lift the stay-at-home order for the 13-county Sacramento region, which includes the state’s capital and Lake Tahoe, a popular winter destination for tourists.
The move will allow hair salons and nail salons and other businesses to reopen and restaurants to dine al fresco again and slightly increase the number of retail customers.
“We’re starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, not just the light the vaccines provide,” Newsom said.
California – the most populous state in the country with a population of nearly 40 million – has recorded an average of more than 41,000 new cases of coronavirus per day in the past two weeks, putting past outbreaks to nothing. While California has the second-highest number of deaths in the country, the state ranks 39th in the number of deaths per capita with 81.8.
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