SACRAMENTO, California (AP) – California is turning baseball stadiums, fairs and even a Disneyland Resort parking lot into massive vaccination sites as coronavirus hospitals overwhelm hospitals and set a deadly new record in the state.
The COVID-19 death toll in California reached 30,000 people on Monday, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
It took six months before the country with the largest population reached 10,000 deaths, but barely a month to jump from 20,000 to 30,000 deaths. California ranks third for COVID-19 deaths in third place, behind Texas and New York, which are number 1 with nearly 40,000.
Public health officials estimate that about 12% of those who contract the virus require hospitalization, usually a few weeks after infection as they become ill.
Government Gavin Newsom and public health officials are counting on widespread vaccinations to help stem the tide of new infections, starting with medical workers and the most vulnerable elderly, such as those in nursing homes.
Newsom, a Democrat, acknowledged that the explosion of vaccines was too slow and he promised that 1 million shots would be fired this week, more than twice what has been done so far.
The effort requires what Newsom calls a ‘practical approach’, including vaccination by pharmacists and pharmacists, dentists, paramedics and emergency medical technicians and members of the California National Guard.
Orange County, south of Los Angeles County, announced Monday that its first mass vaccination site will be at a Disneyland Resort parking lot in Anaheim. It is one of five sites that should vaccinate thousands of people daily.
The sites are “absolutely critical to stopping this deadly virus,” provincial supervisor Doug Chaffee said in a statement.
The state will greatly expand its efforts with new mass vaccination sites at parking lots for Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Petco Park in San Diego and the CalExpo Fair in Sacramento.
Motors stopped at the scene in San Diego early Monday, where officials wanted to vaccinate 5,000 health workers daily.
“It’s like a Disneyland ride” with cars driving by, said Heather Buschman, spokeswoman for UC San Diego Health, whose medical staff fired the shots.
She said people seem eager to be vaccinated, and more than 12,500 health workers in San Diego County initially planned appointments.
By the end of the week, the city of Los Angeles planned to turn its large COVID-19 test site at Dodger Stadium into a vaccination center to handle 12,000 vaccinations daily.
Los Angeles County is an epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, which accounts for about 40% of deaths related to viruses in California and a large number of new cases.
On Monday, nearly 8,000 people were admitted to the hospital in Los Angeles County, which has fewer than 50 intensive care units available in an area with a population of 10 million people, said Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of health services.
While the province has seen a dip in new cases, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said it was likely due to reduced tests after the New Year holidays. She predicted another increase in cases of people gathering together unsafe during the holidays.
Ferrer also said COVID-19 still kills someone in the province every eight minutes on average.
There is some hope, with new hospitalizations around the world from about 3,500 a day earlier this month to about 2,500. Some forecasts have predicted that hospitalizations will decline by the end of the month.
However, the recent frightening leaps in new positive cases show that the state may have just bought time to prepare for what officials in the next few weeks will be another “surge above and beyond a surge”, driven by celebrations of the new year, officials said.
Still, the state can get a little ‘breathing room’ for hospitals with staff and oxygen supplies, and that 1,000 medical workers who have just arrived will increase by another thousand or so before the boom peaks, says Dr. Mark Ghaly, Secretary. of the California Health and Human Services Agency.
Legislators also continued to plead with people to keep social distance to slow down the spread of infection. In Los Angeles County, residents are asked to wear masks even when they are at home if they regularly go outside and live with someone older or otherwise at high risk.
“Dying to COVID in the hospital only means dying,” said Hilda Solis, chair of the Board of Supervisors. ‘Visitors are not allowed in hospitals for their own safety. Families say goodbye to tablets and cell phones. ‘
“One of the more heartbreaking conversations our health professionals share is about these last words when children apologize to their parents and grandparents for bringing COVID into their homes, because they got sick,” Solis said. And these excuses are just a few of the last words loved ones will ever hear. ‘
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Watson reports from San Diego. Associated Press authors John Antczak, Robert Jablon and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.