LOS ANGELES (AP) – California is closing in 3 million cases of coronavirus as the state tries to smooth the rocky launch of vaccines during a continuing increase in COVID-19 deaths.
© Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved
LOS ANGELES, January 6, 2021 – Health workers wait in line for vaccination at a vaccination post at Lincoln Park Recreation Center, Los Angeles, California, United States, January 6, 2021. Eighteen vaccination posts are open daily at Los Angeles County, capable of vaccinating 2,000 health workers a day. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed 13,512 new cases of COVID-19 and 224 new deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections and deaths to 840,611 and 11,071, respectively. (Photo by Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua / Xinhua via Getty Images)
The state recorded 432 deaths on Sunday, the day after recording the second highest daily count of 669, according to the Department of Public Health. The death toll in California since the start of the pandemic has risen to 33,392, while the total number of cases has reached 2.94 million.
Hospitalizations and hospitalizations in intensive care units maintained a slight downward trend, but officials have warned that this can be reversed when the full impact of transmissions during the Christmas and New Year meetings is felt.
“As the number of cases continues to rise in California, the total number of individuals who will have serious consequences will also increase,” the health department said in a statement on Sunday.
There have been about 500 deaths and 40,000 new cases per day in the past two weeks.
Legislators and public health officials said the increase will not be reduced without mass vaccination, but California lags behind the rest of the country in terms of vaccinating its residents. So far, the state has vaccinated only 2,468 people per 100,000, a rate that is well below the national average of about 3,300, according to federal data cited by Sacramento Bee on Saturday.
Governor Gavin Newsom said he and other governors were informed last week that a reserve supply of 50 million doses would be distributed, but no timetable was provided.
After California adjusted its vaccination plan to include everyone over 65, some public health experts expressed concerns that there will not be enough vaccines available for the important second doses – which should be administered within three to four weeks of the first dose, depending on the brand.
“Straightening the ship by pushing everything we have is an unforced mistake,” Andrew Noymer, an infectious disease and public health expert at the University of California, Irvine, told Bee. “The second dose will not arrive in time.”
Sacramento County warned last week that the majority of residents 65 and older – a group that numbered more than 200,000 – will not be shot immediately because they simply do not have a supply, the newspaper reported.
“We ask for patience as we work to navigate the rapidly changing landscape of best practices and availability of vaccination,” said county public health officer, Dr. Olivia Kasirye, in a statement.
To raise concerns, Los Angeles County announced on Saturday that it had detected its first case of a more transmissible variant of COVID-19. He was identified in a man who recently spent time in the country’s most populous county. The patient traveled to Oregon, where he is isolating himself.
Although this is the first confirmed case of the variant, health officials believe it is already spreading in a county that has exceeded 1 million cases of coronavirus this weekend. Although the new strain, first detected in the UK, does not appear to make people sicker, it spreads more easily, which can result in more infections and, with them, additional hospitalizations in a region hard hit by the increase.
“The presence of the UK variant in Los Angeles County is worrying, as our health care system is already severely overburdened with more than 7,500 people hospitalized today,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of the LA County Department of Public Health.
Keep reading