California becomes second US state with 1 million Covid-19 cases, after Texas



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More than 5,000 new cases and 18 new deaths have been reported so far as of Thursday, for a total of 1,000,631 confirmed cases and 18,126 deaths statewide, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

And health officials report that, like most other states across the country, California’s Covid-19 numbers are all heading in the wrong direction.

At a press conference on Nov. 9, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the state had recorded more than 7,200 new cases per day and had a 7-day average of around 5,889 infections.

“This number was familiar four to six weeks ago, but since the beginning of October, where we were able to reduce those numbers below 3,000, we haven’t seen a 7-day average above it. of 5,800 for quite some time, ”Newsom told me.

A day later, California Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Mark Ghaly announced that the state’s 7-day average was 6,078.

The high numbers come as a new forecast from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Policy Lab predicts that major cities in California will see “significant growth in cases by mid-December.”

People line up to be tested at a Covid-19 testing site in Los Angeles on November 10, 2020

Increase in intensive care admissions

Hospitalizations in the state have also started to climb, Ghaly said.

The number of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 increased by 31.6% over a 14-day period, Ghaly said on Tuesday.

“This really higher number of cases that we have seen over the next few days will not manifest or become patients in hospitals for another two to three weeks,” Ghaly said.

Intensive care hospitalizations have also increased, Ghaly said, increasing nearly 30% in two weeks.

Texas becomes first US state with more than a million Covid-19 infections

“As we see the number of hospitals climbing due to the increased number of cases, we also know that we will see an increase in ICU hospitalizations.”

At his press conference, the governor said on Monday that Covid-19 hospitalizations made up about 4% of the total capacity of the state’s health care system and that intensive care admissions made up about 11% of the number. total number of beds available in intensive care unit.

The state continues to have more than 20,000 ventilators available, Newsom said.

“Obviously these numbers are sobering, but again, the total capacity that we have built, the capacity to test, is significantly higher than it was just a few weeks ago, let alone there months ago, and the vast inventory of … PPE is important, ”added the Governor.

“We must watch closely”

Officials also announced this week that three more counties were returning to the most restrictive level in the state – indicating widespread risk of Covid-19 – Sacramento, San Diego and Stanislaus counties.

The Tiers System is the framework California has put in place that helps health officials determine which counties should tighten or relax restrictions based on certain criteria, including test positivity, adjusted case rate, and measuring health equity.

Eight other counties also fell one level, indicating substantial or moderate risk in their region.

Closed windows, overwhelmed hospitals and mobile morgues: residents of El Paso hard hit by the coronavirus

With the state’s numbers rising, no county is moving to less restrictive levels this week.

“A number of counties are indeed seeing pretty high levels of cases, not necessarily the highest they’ve ever seen, but certainly compared to the lows we’ve seen in the last couple of months … we’re definitely seeing almost all across the state are on an upward trajectory, “Ghaly said.” That worries us. “

This is the first week since counties started moving to less restrictive levels that no county has advanced, he added.

“We predict that if things stay the way they are, between this week and next week, more than half of California counties will be downgraded to a more restrictive level,” he said.

“It is certainly an indication that we are concerned, and we need to closely monitor what is going on.”

CNN’s Haley Brink and Dakin Andone contributed to this report.

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