Los Angeles, Dec. 24, (tca/dpa/GNA) — California has now recorded more than 2 million coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, according to a county-by-county tally conducted by The Times, the first state in the nation to reach that alarming milestone, another marker of the wrenching toll the pandemic is inflicting.
The coronavirus has been spreading with unprecedented speed in recent weeks, creating crisis conditions in hospitals and making California one of the hardest-hit parts of the United States.
The soaring number of cases in recent weeks added an astonishing half a million new cases in just the last two weeks alone. California now ranks third among the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as having the most number of new coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents over the last two weeks.
It took almost 10 months for California to record its millionth confirmed coronavirus case. The state tallied its second million coronavirus cases in just six weeks.
Cumulatively, California ranks 36th among the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico for highest number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents.
Los Angeles County reported its deadliest day yet in the COVID-19 pandemic Wednesday — a dire development officials said serves both as a sobering reminder of the danger posed by the disease and an alarming harbinger of even darker days ahead unless everyone takes steps to turn back the tidal wave of new infections.
The additional 145 deaths surpassed the previous daily high of 134 seen a week ago, and were announced the day after the county officially surpassed another morbid milestone: 9,000 total coronavirus-related fatalities.
“We’re in really, really bad shape, and the only way for us to stop being in such bad shape is for more people to start following the rules,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said during a briefing Wednesday.
Chief among those, she said, is that “everyone needs to stay home as much as possible and not visit with people that aren’t in their household.”
Even before Wednesday’s record report, the county had averaged 85 COVID-19 deaths a day over the last week, an all-time high.
In early November, the county was averaging about 12 coronavirus-related deaths per day, according to Ferrer.
Public health officials are now awaiting the arrival of Christmas and New Year’s with bated breath. Many seeds of the current surge, they say, were planted by people defying public health guidance against traveling and gathering with those outside their households for Thanksgiving.
If large numbers of Californians do the same this time around, officials warn, it’s almost certain to trigger yet another surge.
“We are experiencing, we have experienced, the surge on top of the surge from Thanksgiving,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday. “And, obviously, the most important message that we can communicate today is to do everything in our power to mitigate the spread and the transfer of this virus during this very vulnerable period of time, because this virus loves social events. This virus thrives in that atmosphere.”
More than 23,000 Californians have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, a milestone crossed Tuesday. Over the last 14 days, more than 3,000 have died — a staggering number that accounts for 13% of the state’s 23,303 total fatalities.
Those numbers serve as a “sober, sober reminder of how deadly this disease is, and how tragic the loss of every life is,” according to Newsom.
“This disease remains deadly,” he said Wednesday. “This pandemic remains deadly.”
On Tuesday, 375 deaths were reported statewide, according to a county-by-county tally conducted by The Times, marking the second worst death toll in a single day, just short of the record recorded Dec. 16, when 394 deaths were recorded.
Fresno County reported 89 deaths Tuesday; previously, the largest number of fatalities it reported in a single day was 28, which happened Dec. 11. Fresno County is now reporting nearly 2,000 new coronavirus cases a day over the last week, nearly seven times worse than the comparable number from Thanksgiving.
Fresno County is now averaging 13 deaths a day from COVID-19 over the last seven days; the comparable number from Thanksgiving was two deaths a day.
The rapidly increasing number of deaths is the grimmest, but not the only, repercussion of COVID-19’s rampage across L.A. County and the state.
Infections have soared in recent weeks, pushing unprecedented numbers of patients into California’s hospitals.
On Tuesday, the most recent day for which complete data are available, there were record-high numbers statewide of COVID-19 hospitalizations — 18,448 — and patients in intensive care — 3,827.
In L.A. County, home to 10 million people, a point-in-time survey found that there were 30 available ICU beds as of 9 a.m. Sunday. A similar tally last week found 69.
“Today, we’re over 100 per cent of our usual patient volume, and of that volume, 52 per cent of our inpatients are patients diagnosed with COVID,” Greg Adams, chairman and chief executive of Kaiser Permanente, said Tuesday. “Sixteen of our 36 hospitals are already above 100 per cent occupancy in our ICUs. We’re struggling to add capacity for COVID patients as we speak.”
Already, hospitals are having to step up measures to ensure that the sickest patients get the highest level of care possible. That includes moving some patients who would typically be in the ICU to other areas of the hospital, such as a recovery area, or keeping them in the emergency room for longer than normal.
GNA