Calif., N.Y. struggle to control COVID surge

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK • California compelled much of the state to stay home on Monday and New York ordered hospitals to increase bed capacity by 25 per cent, as the United States braced for yet another coronavirus surge during the upcoming holidays.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom's order came into effect one day after the state set a record with more than 30,000 new COVID-19 cases, triggered in areas of Southern California where fewer than 15 per cent of intensive care hospital beds remain available.

In addition, five counties in Northern California surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area have voluntarily imposed the restrictions. Combined, the areas cover about three-quarters of the state's nearly 40 million people.

“Given how out of control the virus is at this point, we are having to dial up some of those restrictions again,” Dr. Celine Gounder, a member of president-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus advisory board, told CBS News. “Ideally, we should be more proactive than this.”

MID-JANUARY IS PROBABLY GOING TO BE A BAD TIME.

Nationwide, COVID-19 infections in United States are at their peak, with an average of 193,863 new cases reported each day over the past week, according to a Reuters tally of official data.

There have been 14.7 million confirmed infections and 282,253 COVID-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began — the most in the world.

To avoid a critical shortage of hospital beds, New York state health officials will order hospitals to increase their capacity by 25 per cent and ask retired doctors and nurses to come back to work, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Monday.

If the hospitalization rate fails to stabilize over the next five days, indoor dining in New York City will be halted, Cuomo said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, tapped by Biden to be his chief medical adviser on the coronavirus, warned the nationwide surge could get worse after Christmas. “Mid-January is probably going to be a bad time,” said Fauci.

U. S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani is doing well and does not have a temperature, the president said on Monday.

Giuliani, the 76-year-old former New York City mayor, tested positive for COVID-19, and was hospitalized on the weekend.