California beats New York as the US state with most COVID-19 deaths

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) – California overtook New York on Tuesday as the US state with the most deaths from coronavirus, a bleak reminder of the number of pandemic victims, even with the vaccine launch and a sharp drop in new cases that fueled eventually normal life expectancies.

More than 45,000 people died as of last Tuesday from COVID-19 in California, the most populous of the 50 states and one of the hardest hit in recent months. New York, badly hit in the early stages of the pandemic last spring, recorded 44,693 lives lost, according to a Reuters count. On here

“This is a moving reminder that COVID-19 is a deadly virus, and we’re sorry to the side of every Californian who suffered the tragic loss of a loved one during this pandemic,” said Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of state for health, about the milestone in an email to Reuters.

California, home to some 40 million people, emerged as the main epicenter of the pandemic in the United States during a wave of infections and hospitalizations later in the year that swept across much of the country, pushing many health systems to the limit.

When considered in terms of deaths per capita, California, with 113 deaths per 100,000 people, ranks 32nd in the country in COVID-19 mortality. In comparison, New York, with 230 deaths per 100,000, is second only to New Jersey, which recorded about 248 deaths from coronavirus per 100,000 residents.

Across the country, daily counts of new cases and hospitalizations for COVID-19 have been steadily falling in recent weeks, while deaths, a slow indicator, have stagnated.

The United States as a whole reported 27.25 million infections and 468,559 deaths, as of last Tuesday. Just over 79,000 American patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Tuesday, the lowest daily number since mid-November.

But in California, as in other states, the improvement obscures a march of illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths, which remain much higher than at the previous peak of the pandemic last summer.

The number of lives reported daily in the state has declined in recent weeks, but remains “remarkably” high, with an average of 500 deaths per day for the past 14 days, Governor Gavin Newsom told a news conference.

“The deaths continue to be devastating,” said Newsom, speaking at the opening of a vaccination post at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara County, near San Francisco.

Public health experts fear that Sunday’s Super Bowl celebrations, as well as the arrival of new highly contagious variants of the virus, could lead to another increase in cases before most Americans are vaccinated.

In an effort to accelerate the immunization campaign that is expected to halt the pandemic, President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that his government planned to increase the number of vaccine doses sent to states as of February 15.

Part of the expanded offer will be sent to community health centers in an effort to improve access to the vaccine for the majority of the poor and minority populations that these centers serve, the White House said on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday, about 33 million Americans had received at least one dose of the vaccine to fight the coronavirus, reported the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“This vaccine is the weapon that will win the war,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told a news conference on Tuesday. Ten percent of New York state residents received the vaccine, he said.

(This story corrects two numbers that were reversed in paragraph five, to show that New Jersey had 248 deaths per 100,000 and New York had 230 per 100,000.)