California became the first state on Wednesday to pass the bleak 2 million cases of coronavirus, just six weeks after reaching the 1 million mark, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. California’s infection rate – in terms of the number of cases per 100,000 people – is lower than the United States average, but with 40 million residents, it exceeds other states in absolute numbers.
More than 23,500 Californians have died of the virus since the pandemic began.
The state has seen its number of cases increase exponentially in the past few weeks, followed by rising rates of hospitalizations and deaths that have overwhelmed intensive care units and led hospitals to put emergency room patients in tents and treat others in offices and auditoriums.
Calls to avoid social gatherings over the holidays sounded especially desperate in Southern California. Los Angeles County leads the increase, accounting for a third of COVID-19 cases in the state and nearly 40% of their deaths.
“We know that this emergency is our darkest day, perhaps the darkest day in the history of our city,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, as he urged people to cancel plans for holiday meetings.
Renee C. Byer / The Sacramento Bee via AP, Pool
On Wednesday, the county reported its highest number of deaths and hospitalizations in a single day since the pandemic began, with 145 deaths and more than 6,000 people in hospitals. More than 9,000 people died of COVID-19 in the county.
Orange County again set a hospital record on Wednesday at 1,854, reports CBS Los Angeles. The county also reported 4,406 new cases of coronavirus and two additional deaths.
Dozens of nurses picketed Wednesday morning in Orange County, protesting the deteriorating conditions inside hospitals that were brought to a breaking point due to the exponential increase in coronavirus cases, the station said.
Thanksgiving meetings in California, in which people ignored the rules of wearing masks and social distance, were held responsible for spreading the infection and another wave of the Christmas holiday could push stressed medical systems to the limit, officials warn. .
Medical workers are discouraged and outraged by the scenes of crowded open-air malls, crowded parking lots and parents and children walking around without masks, said county director of health services, Dr. Christina Ghaly.
If LA County continues to see the same growth in COVID-19 infections over the next two weeks, hospitals may have to ration care due to a lack of medical staff, said Garcetti. “This means that doctors will be forced to determine who lives and who dies,” he said.
Santa Clara County, near San Francisco, has reduced its ICU beds to 35, placing hospitals dangerously close to care rationing, said Dr. Ahmad Kamal, the county’s director of health care preparation.
Overall, California recorded the second highest number of deaths on Wednesday, 361. The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care units nearly doubled in just three weeks to 3,827 cases, while the state’s ICU capacity dropped to 1.1%, compared to 2.5% just two days ago. The number of hospitalizations jumped to 18,828 patients, more than double since December 1, with 605 new patients in one day.
However, there were mild but encouraging signs of hope.
The rate of transmission – the number of people that an infected person in turn infects – has been decreasing for almost two weeks. The rate of positive cases reached a new high of 12.3% in a period of two weeks, but began to show a downward trend in the last seven days, from a peak of 13.3% to 12.6%.
The number of new positive cases dropped to a relatively modest 39,069, given that California has an average of almost 44,000 new confirmed cases per day.
The state also had nearly 1,000 health professionals assisting 91 units in 25 of the state’s 58 counties, and is opening a fifth alternative care facility in San Diego County.
The California National Guard was installing about 200 beds on vacant floors at the Palomar Health Center, near San Diego, within the existing hospital complex, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the Governor’s Emergency Services Office. He could start accepting patients on Christmas Day, relieving overburdened hospitals, especially in neighboring Imperial County.
California expects more federal medical workers to arrive by the weekend, and Governor Gavin Newsom said he expects more than the 3,000 hired health workers the state is trying to reach after the holiday.
The governor also said more than 128,000 doses of vaccines had been administered as of Tuesday, another encouraging sign in addition to the modest decline in transmission rates.
But Newsom also warned that any progress could quickly dissipate, leading to almost 100,000 hospitalizations that some models project in a month if people don’t listen to phone calls to avoid holiday meetings, especially indoors.
“This virus loves social events,” said Newsom. “This virus thrives in that atmosphere.”