"On the brink of catastrophe": California begins 2021 with a new record of deaths from the coronavirus | The State
Rosa Mejía is comforted by her children after the death of her husband Gilberto Arreguín on December 31 in Los Angeles.
Photo:
PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP / Getty Images
The new year began in California with bad news, when it was announced on the first day of 2021 that 585 people died in one day as a result of COVID-19.
That figure, which corresponds to the final day of 2020, constitutes a new negative record for the state as health authorities speak about the seriousness of the situation, as Christina Ghaly, director of health services for Los Angeles County, said that the county is “on the brink of catastrophe” due to the saturation of hospitals.
The report included 47,189 new cases to bring the total to nearly 3 million in the state, which this week exceeded 25,000 deaths from the coronavirus.
Numbers of # COVID19 in California:
🔹 Cases confirmed to date: 2,292,568
🔹 Note: The numbers may not represent true day-to-day changes as reporting of test results may be delayed. pic.twitter.com/RD1cibVrR9– CA Public Health (@CAPublicHealth) January 1, 2021
The situation is so delicate, especially in Southern California and the Central Valley, that Governor Gavin Newsom turned to the US Army Corps of Engineers to provide support with oxygenation systems in several medical centers whose infrastructure is not optimal.
Care capacity in intensive care units remained at 0 in the Southern California and San Joaquin Valley regions, from just 6.3% in the San Francisco Bay Area region and 11% in Greater Sacramento.
The only one of the five regions of the pandemic in California that is not in trouble for care of serious cases is Northern California (33%).
The United States has already exceeded the figure of 20 million official COVID-19 infections and it is feared that the worst may come in January due to the effect of the December holidays.
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