Arnold Schwarzenegger receives COVID-19 vaccine at Dodger Stadium: ‘Come with me if you want to live’

In a viral video, former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger received his first dose of COVID-19 at Dodger Stadium and borrowed a famous line from “The Terminator” to encourage others to get vaccinated.

The 73-year-old posted a video on Twitter of himself getting his bicep shot at the drive-thru vaccination site on Wednesday.

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“Today has been a good day,” he wrote. “I have never been happier to wait in line. If you are eligible, join me and sign up to receive your vaccine.”

“Put down that needle,” he said as he received the photo – a nod to one of his lesser-known films, “Jingle All The Way,” in which he yells at a neighbor eating his wife’s cookies. to “set this cookie now!” “

In the video, the movie star then thanks the technician who administered the shot.

He goes on to say, “Alright, I just got my vaccine, and I will recommend it to everyone. Come with me if you want to live.”

Deaths from COVID-19 continued to rise in Los Angeles County on Wednesday, with more than 250 deaths reported, but as the number of new cases, positivity rates and hospitalization numbers tend to drop , the director of public health said it was too early to proclaim the end of the outbreak.

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The consistently high number of daily deaths in recent weeks is a result of the massive spike in hospitalizations the county has seen over the past month.

Estimates released by the Department of Health Services on Wednesday showed that since November 3, about 23% of people hospitalized with COVID-19 have died – up from 12% in September and October. The average hospital stay for patients rose to more than nine days, from less than seven in October.

California reported its second highest number of COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, but also a drop in hospitalizations below 20,000 for the first time since December 27.

The total of 694 new deaths is the second after the record 708 reported on Jan.8, according to the State Department of Public Health.

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California this week surpassed 3 million cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak began early last year. Almost 35,000 people have died.

Most of the state was still on a stay-at-home order, triggered by a lack of intensive care beds to treat COVID-19 patients. The spike was attributed to people ignoring social distancing and wearing masks when they gathered for the holidays.

Just a few weeks ago, there were fears that hospitals in hard-hit areas would be forced to start rationing care. But statewide hospitalizations fell 8.5% in 14 days, with the number of intensive care patients also declining.

In other good news, statewide positivity for the virus over a seven-day period fell below 10% for the first time in weeks – which statistically means that each infected individual was now infecting fewer people. ‘someone else.

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The Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.