Despite rising cases of coronavirus in other parts of the country, California still sees its statistics trending.
At least for now.
Although the state’s numbers remain relatively positive, officials are insisting they can afford California to see its progress reverse as soon as it emerges from its own terrible fall and winter push.
Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said the high number of cases elsewhere should be a cause for concern because what is happening elsewhere in the country is likely to have consequences for California.
And because a large portion of the state’s businesses and other activities that have been closed for longer continue to be unlocked, interests remain high – and the danger of increased transfers remains real.
California Trends
In the past week, the state reported an average of 2,766 new cases of coronavirus per day, a decrease of 35% from two weeks ago, according to data compiled by The Times.
Across the country, 2,586 COVID-19 patients were admitted to hospital Monday; 635 were in intensive care. Both figures have returned to levels not seen since the beginning of California’s last boom.
The number of newly reported COVID-19 deaths is also still declining, but is not yet up to the level before the boom. An average of 183 Californians died from the disease each day in the past week, and the state’s total death toll exceeded 57,200.
According to the CDC, the seven-day fall per 100,000 people in California was among the lowest, at 46.8, according to the CDC. The only states with better rates were Arizona, 46.1, Oregon, 45.5, and Hawaii, 37.
Business rates during the same period were 319.2 in New Jersey, 311.1 in New York City, 222.1 in the rest of New York State, 162.8 in Pennsylvania, 143.9 in Florida and 91.6 in Texas.
The most recent land rate was 116.1.
But just because California measures well does not mean it is time to celebrate, Ferrer warned.
“This has indicated over the past year that East Coast experiences are regularly increasing in cases off the West Coast, and that LA County is typically a few weeks behind New York,” she told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. ‘While conditions have certainly changed, especially as we have vaccinated millions of individuals over the past three months, we do not yet have enough vaccine protection across the country to prevent more transmission if we are not extremely careful over the next few weeks. ”
National warnings
Officials across California and the state stress that residents need to maintain their vigilance to ward off another wave. This is especially true because more areas are lifting restrictions on pandemics – a delicate process that experts warn can easily go awry.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday that “the continuing easing of preventive measures while cases are still high and rapidly spreading variants in the United States is a serious threat to the progress we are making.” made as a nation. ”
“Believe me, I get it,” she said during an information session. ‘We all want to get back to our everyday activities and spend time with our family, friends and loved ones, but we need to find the strength to hang on there just a little longer. We are at a critical point in this pandemic, a fork in the road where we as a country must decide which path we are going to take. We must act now. And I’m worried that if we do not take the right steps now, we’ll still have an inevitable boom – just as we’re seeing in Europe right now and just as aggressively increasing vaccination. ”
Ferrer agreed.
“Everyone is exhausted by this pandemic and the restrictions, but we do not want to do anything that would make it easy to increase our transmission rates again,” she said. ‘It’s not just a disaster, because then we just have more community transfer, and that means more outbreaks in places that have recently reopened, such as schools, but it’s also a disaster because it allows a variant to create more opportunities. to get. ”
The vaccine breed
In many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic has turned into a race against time, with health officials trying to vaccinate as many people as possible.
California expects to receive about 1.8 million doses this week – according to Gavin Newsom, slightly higher than last week.
But weekly deliveries of that size are not enough to keep up with the state’s vaccination rate.
Times data show that over the past seven days, an average of 378,115 doses have been administered per day.
Overall, more than 15.1 million doses of vaccine – according to the California Department of Public Health – were administered across the country, about 78% of the supplies delivered to local departments and medical providers.
And many officials are showing an optimistic tone that the distribution of vaccines could increase significantly in the near future.
Earlier this month, President Biden said the restrictions on who could make a COVID-19 vaccine appointment would be lifted nationwide by May 1, when supply was expected to be sufficient to meet demand.
And Newsom said on Friday that government officials expect to be able to make the shots available to everyone within 5 weeks, as supply will increase exponentially.
An important factor in the wide expansion of access is the availability of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine – which, unlike the others manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, requires only one shot.
However, shipments of the vaccine were stimulated by production issues. LA County, for example, expects to receive only about 6,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson this week.
While officials are confident that a larger supply stream is imminent, they said the next few weeks will be critical to finally hitting COVID-19 back.
During the upcoming spring holiday season, “we will all have to avoid large gatherings, crowds and non-essential trips,” Ferrer said. ‘This action has had disastrous consequences for our community in the past. Our common goal is to keep each other alive so that everyone can be vaccinated and have an extra layer of protection. ”