The grim milestone, which reached Johns Hopkins University, was not entirely unexpected in a state with 40 million inhabitants, but the speed was incredible. The state only reached 2 million reported cases on December 24.
The first case of coronavirus in California was confirmed on January 25th. It took 292 days to get 1 million infections on 11 November and up to 2 million to 2 days.
California’s caseload is also far ahead of other major states. Texas has more than 2 million and Florida has 1.5 million.
The state has recorded more than 33,600 deaths related to COVID-19.
An escalation of the case study that began last fall has made hospitals and especially intensive care units sick enough due to a percentage of the infected – who are usually estimated by public health officials at around 12% – to seek medical care gain.
On average, California has seen about 500 deaths and 40,000 new cases daily in the past two weeks.
Officials warn that a recent slight downward trend in hospitalizations could stop the full impact of providing New Year’s Eve collection.
The state puts its hopes on mass vaccinations to reduce the number of infections, but the immunization process has struggled. Dr. Erica S. Pan, the state epidemiologist, on Sunday called on providers to stop using one of the Moderna vaccines because some people need medical treatment for possible serious allergic reactions.
More than 330,000 doses of lot 41L20A arrived in California between Jan. 5 and Jan. 12 and were distributed to 287 providers, she said.
In Northern California, Stanislaus County health officials responded by announcing that they would not hold vaccination clinics until further notice.
“Out of extreme caution and also the extremely limited supply of vaccine, we recommend that suppliers use other available vaccine supplies” pending the completion of an investigation by government officials, Moderna, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Federal Food and Drug Administration, said Pan in a statement.
Less than ten people, all of whom received the vaccine on the same premises, needed medical help over 24 hours, Pan said. No other similar bunches were found.
Pan did not specify the number of cases involved or where it occurred.
Six health workers in San Diego had allergic reactions on January 14 to vaccines they received at a massage center. The site has been temporarily closed and now uses other vaccines, reports KTGV-TV.
Moderna said in a statement that the company “is unaware of similar side effects from other vaccination centers that may have administered vaccines of the same fate.”
The CDC said COVID-19 vaccines can cause side effects for several days, including fever, chills, headaches, swelling or fatigue, “which are normal signs that your body is building up protection.”
However, severe reactions are extremely rare. Pan said in a vaccine similar to Moderna, the rate of anaphylaxis – in which an immune system reaction can stop breathing and lower blood pressure – was about 1 in 100,000.
The announcement comes as California provinces continue to advocate for more COVID-19 vaccine as the state seeks to reduce its infection rate, leading to record numbers of hospitalizations and deaths.
California has sent about 3.2 million doses of the vaccine (which requires two doses for complete vaccination) to local health departments and health care systems, the Department of Public Health reported Monday.
Only about 1.4 million of the doses, or about 40%, were administered.
To date, the state has vaccinated less than 2,500 people per 100,000 residents, a rate that, according to federal data, falls far below the national average.
Although Governor Gavin Newsom announced last week that someone 65 and older is eligible to receive the vaccine, Los Angeles County and some others have said they do not have enough doses to vaccinate as many people and are concentrating on the vaccination of health care workers and the most vulnerable elderly people living in care homes.
The death toll from COVID-19 in Los Angeles County – the most populous country and an epicenter of the state pandemic – is estimated at about one person every six minutes.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District on Sunday suspended some restrictions on the number of pollution control cremations for at least ten days to deal with a backlog in bodies at hospitals and funeral homes.
“The current death rate is more than double that of the years of pre-pandemic,” the agency said.
In addition to concerns, California is experiencing new, possibly more transmissible forms of COVID-19.
The state health department announced Sunday that an L452R variant of the virus is increasingly appearing in genetic sequences of COVID-19 test samples from several provinces.
The department was first identified in California and other states and states last year, but has been identified more frequently and in several major outbreaks in Santa Clara County in Northern California.
Generally, the variant has been found in at least a dozen provinces. In some places, the variant was tested in a quarter of the samples that followed, said Dr. Charles Chiu, a virologist and professor of laboratory medicine at the University of San Francisco.
However, not all test samples receive genetic sequencing to identify variants, so their frequency was not immediately clear.
Health officials said it was related to a Christmas outbreak in Kaiser Permanente San Jose that infected at least 89 staff members and patients and killed a receptionist. The outbreak was blamed on an employee who visited the hospital’s emergency room, wearing an air-powered inflatable Christmas tree costume.
The variant differs from another mutation, B117, which was first reported in the UK and seems to spread much more easily, although it does not appear to make people sicker.
This variant has already appeared in San Diego County and Los Angeles County, announced over the weekend that it has discovered its first case.