California COVID-19 Year

Despite early and aggressive measures to contain the coronavirus after the first outbreak in the United States in January last year, California ended in 2020, with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country. Died third.

Looking back on 2020, California was proud to delay the virus because it spread northeast and south like a wildfire last spring, but in March a hospital in Southern California went out of control like a hospital in New York. , Currently promoting the national case load.

Still, epidemiologists say that the country’s most populous states face unique challenges, and their early efforts have resulted in lower cases and deaths per capita than other larger states. It states that it is.

Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, said: “And given what’s happening in LA, given a state as big as California, especially a city center as big as Los Angeles, the early blockades would otherwise have increased very rapidly. I think it definitely influenced the incident. “

According to New York Times data, California recorded 2,322,661 cases in 2020, compared to 1,772,803 in Texas, 1,323,307 in Florida, 996,073 in New York, and 652,952 in Pennsylvania. .. However, per 100,000 inhabitants, California had 5,878 cases in 2020, Texas with 6,114 cases, Florida with 6,161 cases, New York with 5,120 cases, and Pennsylvania with 5,100 cases.

On Thursday, the California County Health Department reported a record 571 COVID-19 deaths, bringing the total annual to 25,971, according to data compiled by the news agency. A total of 6,758 people in December accounted for more than a quarter of the deaths.

However, in California, 66 COVID-19s died per 100,000 inhabitants. In contrast, 194 people died in New York, more than 30,000 after being hit hard by the spring outbreak. There were 127 in Pennsylvania, 101 in Florida, and 97 in Texas. To the New York Times.

On the other hand, the number of cases in the United States on New Year’s Day exceeded 20 million. This is almost twice that of India, and in most countries it is the second most common in the world and almost a quarter of the more than 83 million cases. Hopkins University. The United States was approaching 350,000 virus-related deaths.

California has reached a tough milestone, despite the initial implementation of a large shelter-in-place order to slow the spread of the virus. Today, hospitals in Los Angeles are overwhelmed like New York City in the spring, with overflowing patients moving to hospital corridors, gift shops, and even cafeterias, where refrigerated trucks are waiting to store the dead.

Throughout the state, the hospital’s intensive care unit capacity remained at 0%. This indicates that the staff are so tense that they are unable to provide optimal treatment to critically ill patients. Regionally, ICU capacity ranged from 33.3% in Northern California to 0% in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, according to the California Public Health Service. The Bay Area was 8.5% and Greater Sacramento was 11.1%.

A recent UCSF survey found that in the first six months of the pandemic, nearly 20,000 more Californians died than expected to die in a normal year, but the first blockade (March 19) From May 9th) by the state. Researchers have found that not all groups, especially Latino Americans and adults without a high school degree, who make up nearly 40% of the state’s population, benefited from the blockade.

The state may be in a better position if Bibins-Domingo focuses on the most hit communities and finds ways to reopen schools and playgrounds faster and more safely to alleviate “pandemic fatigue.” Said not. She also said the state would have benefited from more tests and better data to help manage the crisis.

“What we’re seeing in 10 months is some things we could have done better and could have put us in a better position for this winter surge.” She said.

According to preliminary data from the California Public Health Service, the virus was becoming the third leading cause of death in California in 2020, just before Alzheimer’s disease, after heart disease and cancer. Between January and October, 52,906 people died of heart disease and 49,366 died of cancer. At the same time, 15,174 people died of Alzheimer’s disease.

A record number of COVID-19 deaths were reported in California on the final day of 2020, but as the state entered the New Year, the new infection appeared to be stable.

According to data compiled by the news agency, state cases have leveled off since Monday, when a record 65,717 new cases were reported. This is after December 21, when 61,458 cases were reported. That number fell to 36,012 on Tuesday. 31,117 cases were reported on Wednesday. 33,889 cases were reported on Thursday.

But this week, California became the first state in the country, with 20,000 inhabitants infected with the virus at once. According to data from the COVID Tracking Project, California’s hospitalization rate is 546 per million. Only Alabama, Arizona, and Nevada have higher rates — 577 per million, 647 per million, and 648 per million, respectively.

According to project data, California has 91 cases per 100,000 people, with the highest average number of new cases per day. Kansas is second at 89 and Arizona is third at 88.