California is infected with a virus from worst to first

Los Angeles-California was the epicenter just a few months ago Coronavirus A pandemic at a US hospital in Los Angeles was drowning in patients, and ambulances were idling outside with people struggling to breathe waiting for the bed to open.

The death toll was staggering. The morgue was full and refrigerated trucks were brought in to handle the overflow.

With the current surge in cases in other parts of the United States, California has moved quickly to reopen more businesses with more customers and enable more rallies. It went from worst to first with the lowest infection rate in the United States.

Scramble for COVID-19 vaccination has been superseded by public offerings in many places. Where people lined up for hours and the county struggled to get doses, it now seems that there are excess shots in many places.

Dr. Robert Kim Farley of the University of California said: Public Health School in Los Angeles, California.

During the peak of California’s winter surge following Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year holidays, the state recorded 40,000 new cases daily, with far more than 500 deaths per day. These numbers are reduced to 2,300 new cases and 68 deaths daily.

The state surpassed Hawaii on Thursday, with the lowest average number of cases per capita in the last two weeks, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. One in 2,416 people in California was positive last week. On the other side of the spectrum, 1 in 223 people in Michigan was diagnosed with the virus.

Kim Farley said it was like looking back at a giant tanker ship to reach today’s level of improvement. He acknowledged the achievements of governments and public health agencies for providing clear guidelines that businesses, schools and individuals follow primarily, including mask obligations and social distance.

Governor Gavin Newsom allows reopening of businesses and schools by county on a case-by-case basis. At various points in the pandemic, he faced intense criticism that the restrictions were too strict, and he is now worried that he may be moving too fast.

All counties have improved enough to get out of the four toughest tiers, and 38 of the 58 counties (accounting for 87% of the state’s population) are now in the second least restricted tier. .. Newsam said most of the remaining coronavirus restrictions will be lifted by June 15.

Pandemics are skyrocketing unevenly across the United States

Compared to New York, where hospitals were overwhelmed last spring, California had fewer cases a year ago. When California was on the verge of a second winter surge in mid-January, Michigan cases declined towards lows in February and then surged to the current highest prevalence in the United States. ..

Kim Farley said he was afraid that the surge in California would increase the number of people wearing masks. He said it helped prevent the resurrection.

“Some states in the United States that have lifted their mask obligations are suffering from the consequences as the number of cases increases, while the decline continues,” he said.

California, like other states, struggled to deploy the vaccine and restricted its use to healthcare workers and the elderly at high risk of hospitalization and death. The dose increased as the number of cases decreased, and the high number of infections during the winter also provided a certain level of innate immunity.

Only a few weeks ago, the county had a hard time getting the dose. The state has limited the eligibility of valuable vaccines, and there have been many stories of scammers jumping the line to get shots.

On Thursday, the Vaccine Spotter website, which assists in booking reservations, flooded the state map with green dots to indicate available bookings. Many were available on the same day, and some sites allowed people to appear without reservations.

Los Angeles County has opened walk-up sites in Palmdale and Lancaster. At Napa County’s largest mass vaccination clinic, demand fell from floods to trickles shortly after California extended vaccination eligibility to all people over the age of 16 last week. You can also bring it in.

“We definitely have the ability,” said county spokeswoman Janet Upton. “But what we lack now is, at first glance, the public interest.”

California has about 40 million inhabitants, and more than half of the 32 million people covered by the vaccine receive at least one vaccination.

Concerns about reporting rare complications, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and a sense of diminished risk have led to vaccine hesitation.

Barbara Ferrer, director of public health at Los Angeles County, sought to persuade more people to set aside concerns about vaccines. He pointed out that the potential for serious side effects is the same as most people dying on a 200-mile expedition that doesn’t hesitate. ..

“The risk of serious side effects from the COVID vaccine is about one in a million,” she said. “We take these small risks every day when we live our lives because we know that what is on the other side is very valuable. Similarly, the other side of vaccination. It is worth returning to the normal state at. “

With the deployment of the vaccine, the morgue, which ran out of space, returned to normal.

“That’s the difference between day and night,” said Todd Beckley, general manager of the Inglewood Cemetery Funeral Home. “There were times when nine people died a day, all of which were COVID. There were no COVID deaths in four days.”

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The Associated Press writer Robert Jablon contributed to this report.