State’s deaths spur pleas to stay home for Christmas
LOS ANGELES — California’s deadly Christmas was marked by pleas to avoid holiday gatherings outside the home and indoor church services in what could be a make-or-break effort to curb a Coronavirus surge that already has filled some hospitals well beyond normal capacity.
Festive gatherings with friends and family might be tempting after a year that has seen the pandemic take nearly 24,000 lives and ravage the economy as much of the state remained under a stayat-home order that has closed nonessential businesses.
But officials repeated warnings that Thanksgiving gatherings where people didn’t wear masks or observe social distancing have resulted in a surge and begged people to forgo Yule and New Year’s festivities.
In Sonoma County in California’s wine country, a Native American casino announced it was canceling a planned private New Year’s Eve indoor event that could have drawn as many as 4,000 people. The Graton Resort and Casino is on sovereign native land that isn’t subject to state or county health orders but it had come under scrutiny for the event.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said hospitals are under “unprecedented pressure” and if current trends continue the number of those hospitalized because of the virus could double in 30 days.
“We could have a surge on top of surge on top of a surge in January and February,” Newsom said in a social media video posting Thursday. “I fear that but we’re not victims to that if we change our behaviors.”
Coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths have mounted exponentially in recent weeks and are breaking new records. On Christmas Eve, California became the first state in the nation to exceed 2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases.
On Friday, the state reported more than 39,000 new COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, a 2% increase from the previous day but still far below the peak of more than 53,000 cases reported last week. The 14-day daily average was below 40,000 cases.
There were 312 new deaths reported, a 1.3% jump from the previous day but still well below last week’s peak of 379. However, the overall death rate has surged by more than 16% over two weeks.
The first Coronavirus case in California was confirmed Jan. 25. It took 292 days to get to 1 million infections on Nov. 11. Just 44 days later, the number topped 2 million.
The crisis is straining the state’s medical system well beyond its normal capacity, prompting hospitals to treat patients in tents, offices and auditoriums.
As of Thursday, California had record numbers of COVID-19 patients in the hospital and in ICUs, at nearly 19,000 and nearly 4,000, respectively. Friday figures showed no increase in hospitalizations and there were a few more ICU beds available, for a total of around 1,400 statewide, according to the California Department of Public Health.