California shatters COVID-19 records as surge worsens
LOS ANGELES — The fall coronavirus surge in California entered a critical moment on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, with the state shattering a daily record for new cases.
The state recorded 20,654 cases Monday, significantly surpassing a previous record of 13,400.
Officials are hoping restrictions imposed over the last week will slow the unprecedented spread of the virus and that residents will avoid big Thanksgiving gatherings that experts fear could spread the virus further.
Last week, state officials announced a new order prohibiting most nonessential activity outside the home from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. in counties that are in the strictest “purple” tier of the state’s color-coded reopening road map. Roughly 94% of Californians are subject to that order, which lasts until Dec. 21, though it could be extended.
“We’re hoping that’s all we’ll need, but we’ll see,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday. “We’re openminded to the dynamics of the conditions that are changing in real time.”
California is now on pace to see its cumulative death toll double just before spring, from the more than 18,700 deaths currently tallied to more than 37,000 by March 1, according to model forecasts by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
A Los Angeles Times analysis Monday found that the average daily number of coronavirus cases over a five-day period has more than tripled since Election Day. COVID-19 hospitalizations have doubled since midOctober, from 730 on Oct. 18 to 1,473 on Sunday.
The specter of another coronavirus shutdown is looming over L.A. County, which has been particularly hard hit by the surge.
When such a new stayat-home order will be handed down, or what precise form it will take, is unclear. But L.A. County director of public health Barbara Ferrer said, “For sure, we’re not going back to all of the restrictions that were in place in the original Safer at Home order.”