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In a country ravaged by a dreaded winter wave of the coronavirus, California has become the emblem of the pandemic’s devastation.
The state has had some of the worst results: full mortuaries, overwhelmed hospitals, shortage of oxygen.
But that is slowly starting to change – especially in northern California.
Yet it is far from clear that the state is rebounding completely. Officials hope housekeeping measures and behavioral changes may, over time, shift the curve. The latest restrictions took effect in late November, but holiday gatherings, shopping and travel are believed to have fueled the new peak in coronavirus cases.
The post-Christmas outbreak is the biggest concern of public health officials, who are concerned about what additional infections will do to hospitals already inundated with patients.
The hope is that by February there will be some relief as the number of cases begins to stabilize.
Here’s where we are in the coronavirus crisis and where we could be heading:
National perspectives
Of the 50 states, 49 are either in crisis or recovering, said Dr George Rutherford, epidemiologist and infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco. Hawaii is the only state that is not booming.
“The cases are everywhere,” Rutherford said, “with many in the southwest – Arizona, Southern California; a bit in New Mexico and southern Nevada – but also in the central south.”
Arizona and Rhode Island have overtaken California in terms of coronavirus case rates with the worst rates in the country in the past 14 days. Arizona overtook California on Jan. 2 with a worse rate of coronavirus cases per capita, according to a Times analysis.
In the past few weeks, hospitals in Phoenix have started turning some ambulance patients out of emergency rooms, according to the Arizona Republic.
There are also now 16 states with worse COVID-19 per capita death rates in the past 14 days than California’s. The death toll in Arizona and Kansas over the past two weeks is at least 50% higher than that of California.
Positive signs
There are signs of improvement in California.
The number of coronavirus positive patients hospitalized statewide peaked at just under 22,000, and new COVID-19 admissions have also declined – from around 3,500 a day last week to between 2,500 and 2,600, according to Dr Mark Ghaly, Secretary of Health and Services California social.
The increase in the COVID-19 hospitalization rate has slowed, and Ghaly said it was “a very encouraging sign, but we are not out of the woods.”
“We know there is still a lot of COVID in our communities, that people can easily pass it on.”
In other developments:
- The raised state his order at home for Greater Sacramento. The move will allow counties to reopen hair and barber shops in limited capacity and allow other businesses, including restaurants, to resume some outdoor activities.
- Some areas of northern California have seen infection rates slow.
Negative signs
As Governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday: “California remains in its most intense wave yet.”
The state on Tuesday released a high number of coronavirus cases and deaths in a single day, with both figures well above the daily average.
Daily basis survey conducted by The Times found 53,260 coronavirus cases – the sixth highest total in a day – and 678 deaths reported on Tuesday. The death toll was the second-highest on any day in the pandemic, eclipsed only by Friday’s tally, when 685 deaths were recorded.
Tuesday marked the first time that California recorded an average of more than 500 COVID-19 deaths per day over a weekly period. A Times analysis found that the state now averages 520 deaths per day, roughly the equivalent of a Californian dying every three minutes.
Southern California is still criticized by the coronavirus. The post-Christmas push has worsened, but it’s still unclear how badly it will hit hospitals, which are already at critical levels.
Although the number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized across the county has stabilized recently at just under 8,000, the sustained increase has forced some county hospitals to open beds. in hallways and gift shops and making some patients wait in ambulances up to 5 p.m. before the space in the emergency room opens.
Any new spike in infections, officials warn, will trigger a resulting wave of new patients requiring professional care – creating a unbearable strain on hospitals and intensive care units already overtaxed.
Moreover:
- Los Angeles County is quickly approaching one million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, a milestone that means 1 in 10 Angelenos has been infected at some point during the pandemic.
- As of Tuesday, 14,134 new cases of the coronavirus were recorded in LA County. This has pushed the county to average over 15,000 new cases of coronavirus per day over the past week, one of the worst daily averages and a warning sign for a potential future increase in hospitalizations. Authorities predict that an average of 15,000 cases per day would likely be a precursor to an even worse increase in hospitalizations.
- More than 2,300 people across the county have died from COVID-19 since New Years Day, and LA County has averaged about 231 deaths per day from the disease over the past week, a higher rate than at any time during the pandemic. As of Tuesday, 318 deaths were reported in LA County, tying the highest single-day tally of deaths on Friday.
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