By far the deadliest day of the pandemic in the state Friday – Deadline

UPDATE with the latest: Friday was by far the deadliest day in the pandemic in California. California saw a frightening new record of 432 Covid-related deaths on Wednesday. Thursday’s number fell slightly to 428. On Friday, the number of recorded lives lost to the virus climbed to 585. That’s a 37% increase in one day.

Some of the deaths were due to a backlog of data due to an internet outage in the Los Angeles area and the holidays, but that asterisk has been applicable every day this week. For comparison, the 7-day average of deaths was 239 on Wednesday.

According to its data dashboard, the state saw 47,198 new infections on Friday. As with Los Angeles County, that number represents an increase from the generally much lower daily cases over the past two weeks. The fear, of course, is that the rise could be linked to gatherings and travel during the holidays. This could represent the start of an unprecedented new wave.

The number of hospitalizations linked to the virus was very close to the record high of 21,433 people.

PREVIOUS Wednesday California Governor Gavin Newsom spent much of his Covid-19 briefing on Wednesday discussing new plans to reopen schools. But amid those details, he also reported the news that the state had recorded 432 shocking Covid-related deaths in the past 24 hours.

For comparison, the already very high 7-day average of deaths was 239 on Wednesday. The previous daily record in the state was 379 deaths on December 16. Even more shocking, on November 30, the daily death toll from Covid-19 was 70. So Wednesday’s number represents a staggering 617% increase over the past 30 days. In 14 days, the governor announced gravely, “that’s 3,477 lives lost”.

For those at the start of the pandemic who claimed that Covid-19 was little more than the flu, 3,477 deaths are more than 50% of the typical number of flu deaths in California in a year when the flu was prevalent.

Newsom announced that 30,921 new cases of Covid-19 had been identified in the state on Wednesday. He noted that this number reflected a “plateau that we’re seeing outside of LA County, outside of Southern California more broadly.” LA County, of course, remained the epicenter of the virus in the state and possibly the country.

California’s test positivity rate in the state was 12.2% in the past 14 days. Newsom said: “There is now evidence that this number is also leveling off,” but cautioned against relying too much on the drop.

He said there were more than 20,000 people hospitalized with Covid-19. “You are starting to see that number decrease modestly across the state,” he added.

The problem – in addition to deaths – is found in intensive care units across states, particularly in the Central Valley and Southern California. “This is our goal,” Newsom said.

As the decline in daily cases indicates that the dreaded Thanksgiving wave may have made its way across the state, CA Director of Health and Human Services Dr.Mark Ghaly said the State might not yet see the light at the end of the tunnel. . Health officials are still worried, “not just because of Thanksgiving,” Ghaly said, “but now because of Hanukkah and Christmas.” If this vacation has seen an equal or greater number of trips and household mix, the worst may be yet to come.

In fact, state modeling predicts that California will see a 100% increase in the total number of hospitalizations by January 29 and a 60% increase in the number of Covid-19 patients requiring care in USI.

You can watch Governor Newsom’s press conference below.