California reached an alarming milestone on Wednesday, surpassing more than 2 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 – the highest number of any US state, according to data from NBC News.
The virus has devastated the state in recent weeks, claiming many lives – sometimes hundreds a day – and overloading hospital systems. In total, more than 23,000 people died of the virus there.
Los Angeles County, the most populous in the United States, was hit particularly hard. The county saw more than 660,000 confirmed cases of the virus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The California crisis comes at a time when public health experts fear that Christmas trips and New Year celebrations could cause another increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Leading public health officials have warned that the winter months will be especially terrible and dangerous. Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he believed “these will be the most difficult times in this nation’s public health history.”
In other news about the coronavirus:
- The US recorded 222,866 new cases and 3,135 deaths Wednesday The country averaged 217,479 new cases and 2,732 new deaths per day last week, according to data from NBC News. (Four weeks ago, the daily averages were 175,993 cases and 1,651 deaths.)
- The day before Christmas Eve, more than 1.1 million people boarded planes – the largest number of air travelers since March, according to data compiled by the Transportation Security Administration.
- The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it would buy an additional 100 million doses of Pfizer Vacid-19, Reported Rebecca Shabad of NBC News. The purchase adds up to the 100 million doses already purchased by the United States government.
- Mexico began its vaccine launch Thursday. The first person to get the vaccine in the country: Maria Irene Ramirez, head nurse of the intensive care unit at the Ruben Leñero hospital in Mexico City. “This is the best gift I could have received in 2020,” she said during an event broadcast on national television, according to Reuters.
- AN New variant of coronavirus appears to have appeared in Nigeria, Africa’s top public health official announced on Thursday, according to The Associated Press. John Nkengasong, head of Africa’s CDC, said that further investigations are needed. He added that the new variant was a “separate lineage” from the discoveries recently in the UK and South Africa.
- Israel is considering instituting a third national blockade to tackle the peak of Covid-19 infections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday. The blockade would go into effect on Sunday night and last for two weeks, pending the cabinet’s final approval, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
- French President Emmanuel Macron, which tested positive on December 17, no longer shows symptoms of a virus, Eliseu’s office announced on Thursday. Macron has been in isolation, but that could end after seven days, said Macron’s office.
- Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the main public faces of the federal government’s response to Covid-19, turns 80 on Thursday. “I’m going to spend it on a quiet dinner with my wife at my home, and Zoom on my daughters,” Fauci told Politico.
