California became the first state to cross the stark two million mark COVID-19 fell Wednesday, just six weeks after hitting the one million mark, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The infection rate in California – in terms of the number of cases per 100,000 people – is lower than the US average, but at 40 million residents, it outstrips other states in large numbers.
More than 23,500 Californians have died from the virus since the start of the pandemic.
The state has seen the number of cases soar exponentially in recent weeks, followed by rising hospitalizations and deaths that have overwhelmed intensive care units and prompted hospitals to tent patients in the emergency room and treat others in offices and auditoriums .
The pleas to avoid holiday social gatherings rang with particular despair in Southern California. Los Angeles County is leading the wave, accounting for one-third of COVID-19 cases in the state and nearly 40% of deaths.
“We know this emergency is our darkest day, arguably the darkest day in our city’s history,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, urging people to cancel vacation meeting plans.
Renee C. Byer / The Sacramento Bee via AP, Pool
On Wednesday, the province reported the highest number of deaths and hospitalizations in one day since the start of the pandemic, with 145 deaths and more than 6,000 people in hospitals. More than 9,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the province.
Orange County set a new hospital admission record Wednesday with 1,854, CBS Los Angeles reports. The province also reported 4,406 new coronavirus cases and two additional deaths.
Dozens of nurses had been arrested in Orange County on Wednesday morning protesting deteriorating hospital conditions brought to a breaking point due to the exponential spike in coronavirus cases, the station said.
Thanksgiving rallies in California where people ignored the wearing of masks and blamed social aloofness rules for spreading the infection and another wave of the Christmas holidays could push stressed medical systems over the edge, officials warn.
Medical staff are discouraged and outraged by scenes of overcrowded shopping malls, crowded parking lots and parents and children walking around without masks, said County Health Services Director, Dr. Christina Ghaly.
If LA County continues to see the same growth in COVID-19 infections over the next two weeks, hospitals may need to ration care due to a lack of medical personnel, Garcetti said. “That means the doctors will be forced to determine who lives and who dies,” he said.
In Santa Clara County, near San Francisco, there were only 35 intensive care beds left, putting hospitals dangerously close to rationing, said Dr. Ahmad Kamal, the county director for health care preparation.
Overall, California recorded the second highest number of deaths on Wednesday, at 361. The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care units nearly doubled in just three weeks to 3,827 cases, while the state’s ICU capacity dropped from 2.00 5 to 1.1%. % just two days ago. The number of hospital admissions rose to 18,828 patients, more than double since December 1, with 605 new patients in one day.
Still, there were light but encouraging signs of hope.
The transmission speed – the number of people an infected person will infect in turn – has been slowing for nearly two weeks. The number of positive cases reached a new high of 12.3% over a two-week period, but started to decline in the past seven days, from a peak of 13.3% to 12.6%.
The number of new positive cases fell to a relatively modest 39,069, as California has an average of nearly 44,000 newly confirmed cases per day.
The state also had nearly 1,000 health workers assisting in 91 facilities in 25 of the state’s 58 counties, opening a fifth alternative care site in San Diego County.
The California National Guard was in the process of setting up about 200 beds on empty floors of the Palomar Health Center near San Diego, within the existing hospital complex, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. It could start with accepting patients on Christmas Day, relieving overloaded hospitals, particularly in nearby Imperial County.
California expects more federal medical workers to arrive by the weekend, and Governor Gavin Newsom said he expects more of the 3,000 health-care indentured workers the state wants to reach after the holidays.
The governor also said more than 128,000 doses of vaccines had been administered on Tuesday, another encouraging sign that goes beyond the modest drop in transmission speed.
But Newsom also warned that any progress could quickly disappear, leading to the nearly 100,000 hospitalizations some models project in a month if people don’t heed calls to avoid holiday gatherings, especially indoors.
“This virus likes social events,” Newsom said. “This virus thrives in that atmosphere.”