California on Sunday continued to experience a dramatic increase in its number of COVID-19 deaths, while the state was rapidly approaching another milestone: 30,000 deaths.
The rate of daily deaths from COVID-19 has risen since the most recent surge began in November. On November 3, California records about 40 deaths a day; at Thanksgiving, about 70 deaths a day; and by Christmas about 220 deaths a day. By Saturday night, California had recorded an average of 451 deaths per day for the previous week, a record.
It took about six months before California recorded its 10,000th death, which occurred on August 6, and another four months to record its 20,000th death, which was recorded. December 8th. California recorded its 29,877th death Sunday afternoon, about one month later, according to a preliminary survey of local health law areas conducted by The Times.
Five of the highest one-day death rates for California have been recorded in the past week.
The most recent death record for California in California occurred on Friday when 685 deaths were recorded, breaking the previous record of 575 deaths on New Year’s Eve. An additional 456 deaths were counted across the country on Saturday, the sixth-highest one-day count.
California is taking up an increasing number of daily cases of coronavirus after a rest period. From December 16 to December 22, the state had an average of 45,000 cases of coronavirus per day, a record; it stabilized by between 35,000 and 40,000 cases a day until Thursday.
But the seven-day average of new cases rose to nearly 44,000 by Saturday, the fourth-highest number of the pandemic.
The increase in new cases of coronavirus increases after Christmas. LA County’s average number of coronavirus new cases on Thursday, Friday and Saturday was about 18,000 – well above the average of about 14,000 new cases per day over the past week.
“This is very clearly the latest upsurge of the winter holidays and the new year – no doubt about it,” said dr. Paul Simon, chief scientific officer of the Department of Public Health in LA, said Friday. ‘It started gradually earlier in the week, but [definitely] here in the last day or two. ”
A preliminary, incomplete survey of local health jurisdictions in LA County found that at least 14,000 new cases of coronavirus were reported Sunday and at least 160 deaths. The daily rates for Sundays are generally lower due to delays over the weekend.
LA County now averages about 211 COVID-19 deaths per day, a record. This is a much faster rate than the number of Christmases, when LA County averaged about 80 deaths a day, and Thanksgiving, when about 30 deaths a day were recorded.
There is still pressure on California’s overload intensive care units. According to data released Sunday, the number of COVID-19 patients in the state’s ICUs climbed to a record 4,863 on Saturday. That’s about the triple number of Thanksgiving.
About 22,000 COVID-19 patients were in California hospitals on Saturday. The number has remained relatively low over the past week. Officials expect the number of hospitalizations to start deteriorating this week as people become infected over Christmas. What is not yet fully known is how bad the boom after holidays will be in the hospitals.
LA COVID-19 hospitalizations in LA County have been stable over the past few days, hovering between 7,900 and 8,100 patients, including about 1,700 in the ICU.
The ICUs in LA County have no space available. There are usually about 2,000 crew members for ICU beds in the country, and as of last week, about 400 have been occupied by non-COVID patients.
In recent days, available ICU beds in the country have dropped to zero in one of the following regions: Central LA, the Westside, Southeast LA, the San Gabriel Valley and the Antelope Valley. The South Bay and Long Beach region has had just three available ICU beds in recent days, and the San Fernando Valley as few as six.
Although the current pandemic boom in California is severe, the state has one of the lower cumulative numbers of COVID-19 deaths per capita, and is ranked 38th out of 50 states, probably due to the early establishment of the homeless order. in the spring and summer closure of certain high-risk businesses. The death toll from COVID-19 in New Jersey is three times that of California, Arizona’s is double and Florida’s is 1 times larger.