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California set a new COVID-19 death record on Wednesday, reporting more than 400 new deaths. Hospitalizations are also increasing, prompting doctors like Dr Tirso del Junco, Jr., chief medical officer of KPC Health’s global medical centers, to warn that “we are on the brink of truly catastrophic times.”
Del Junco said hospitals in Southern California now face the grim prospect of rationing care.
“When you have multiple patients who experience cardiac arrest or code blues, not everyone can answer them. They must therefore make a choice. Who do I answer? Who am I not responding to? he said.
Many COVID patients are now between 20 and 30 years old, he added.
California got more bad news on Wednesday when he joined Colorado in report a case of the new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus. The new variant was first reported in the UK and has since been identified in a number of countries.
“We have been informed that this new variant, which we have obviously identified in the UK, has been identified here in the state of California, in southern California,” Governor Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday in a statement. virtual conversation with Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist.
“I’m not surprised that you have a case, and probably more cases, in California and we’ll likely see reports from other states,” Fauci said. One case was confirmed in Colorado, and another is suspected.
“These two cases are Colorado National Guard personnel who were both deployed to support the staffing of the Good Samaritan Society Nursing Home,” said Dr. Rachel Herlihy, state epidemiologist in the Department of Colorado Public Health and Environment.
Herlihy said the nursing home had an ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that there was no evidence the new strain is more deadly or resistant to the vaccine. Current guidelines, such as mask wearing and social distancing, should always be followed, the agency said.
British scientists believe the variant spreads much faster and may contain mutations that make it easier to infect children.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that the second case of the Colorado variant has not been confirmed.
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