LOS ANGELES (AP) – California is dealing with 3 million cases of coronavirus as the state seeks to mitigate the rocky rollout of vaccines during a steady increase in COVID-19 deaths.
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LOS ANGELES, Jan. 6, 2021 – Healthcare workers wait in line for vaccinations at a vaccination site in Lincoln Park Recreation Center, Los Angeles, California, USA, January 6, 2021. Eighteen vaccination sites are now open daily in Los Angeles County, CA is able to vaccinate 2,000 health workers a day. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Tuesday confirmed 13,512 new cases of COVID-19 and 224 new deaths, bringing the total infections and deaths to 840,611 and 11,071, respectively. (Photo by Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua / Xinhua via Getty Images)
According to the Department of Public Health, the state reported 432 deaths on Sunday, a day after the second highest daily count of 669 was recorded. California’s death toll since the start of the pandemic has risen to 33,392, while the total number of cases has reached 2.94 million.
Admissions to hospitals and intensive care units have remained in a slight downward trend, but officials have warned that this could stop the full impact of transfers being felt during Christmas and New Year’s Eve gatherings.
“As numbers in California continue to rise, the total number of individuals who will have serious outcomes will also increase,” the Department of Health said in a statement Sunday.
Over the past two weeks, there have been about 500 deaths and 40,000 new cases daily.
Lawmakers and public health officials said the boom would not be flattened without mass vaccinations, but California has left the rest of the country behind when it comes to vaccinating residents. So far, the state has vaccinated just 2,468 people per 100,000, a rate well below the national average of about 3,300, according to federal data the Sacramento Bee quoted Saturday.
Government Gavin Newsom said he and other governors were told last week that a reserve stock of 50 million doses would be distributed, but no timetable was given.
After California adjusted its vaccination plan to include everyone over the age of 65, some public health experts expressed concern that there were not enough shots available for the most important second doses – which should be administered within three to four weeks after the first dose. , depending on The brand.
“Fixing the ship by pushing out everything we have is a forced mistake,” Andrew Noymer, an infectious disease and public health expert at the University of California, Irvine told the Bee. “The second dose does not come on time.”
Sacramento County warned last week that most residents 65 and older – a group of more than 200,000 – would not get shots immediately because they simply did not have the supplies, the newspaper reported.
“We ask for patience as we work to navigate the rapidly changing landscape of best practices and availability of vaccination,” provincial public health officer Dr Olivia Kasirye said in a statement.
Los Angeles County announced Saturday that it has discovered its first case of a more transmissible variant of COVID-19. It has been identified in a man who recently spent time in the country’s populated province. The patient traveled to Oregon, where he isolated himself.
Although this is the first confirmed case of the variant, health officials believe it is already spreading in a country that surpassed 1 million cases of coronavirus over the weekend. Although the new strain, first detected in the UK, does not appear to make people sicker, it spreads more easily, which could lead to more infections, and with it additional hospitalizations in a region hit hard by the boom.
“The presence of the British variant in Los Angeles County is worrying because our healthcare system is already very tense with more than 7,500 people currently being admitted to hospital,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of the LA County Department of Public Health , said.
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