California virus cases grow to at least 8,200
LOS ANGELES » A Southern California nursing home has more than 50 residents infected with coronavirus — a troubling development amid cautious optimism that cases in the state may peak more slowly than expected.
Cedar Mountain Post Acute Rehabilitation in Yucaipa has been told to assume that all of its patients have COVID-19, San Bernardino County Department of Public Health Director Trudy Raymundo said. As of Tuesday, 51 residents and six staff members had tested positive. Two patients have died.
The nursing home east of Los Angeles isn’t accepting new residents and the facility has been closed to visitors under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order, Raymundo said.
The announcement came as Newsom said extraordinary efforts to keep people home have bought time needed to prepare for an expected surge of cases in coming weeks. He said the slower- than- forecast increase in cases means the peak is now likely to occur in May.
“To be truthful and candid, the current modeling is on the lower end of our projection as I talk to you today,” Newsom said Tuesday. “Very easily tomorrow I could say something differently, and that’s why one just has to be very cautious about this.”
Under Newsom’s direction, the state has been scrambling to add 50,000 hospital beds to its current 75,000.
On Wednesday, there were more than 8,200 cases and at least 180 deaths in California, according to data kept by Johns Hopkins University. Michigan, which has 30 million fewer residents, had about 7,600 cases and at least 259 deaths.
Among the dead was a veteran Santa Rosa police officer, the police department said in a statement. It was the first known death of a law enforcement officer in the state.
Santa Rosa Police Chief Detective Marylou Armer was among the eight sworn officers in the department who had tested positive for the virus as of Monday, the Press Democrat reported.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein and officials in San Francisco
are pleading for federal assistance to help stop the spread of the virus at Laguna Honda Hospital, where at least two residents and nine staff members have tested positive.
South of San Francisco, five residents at a Pacifica nursing home tested positive and one has died, Pacifica Mayor Deirdre Martin told KPIX. In nearby Burlingame, two residents of a senior living facility died and five tested positive last month.
Health officials have warned that as testing ramps up, the number of cases will grow, in some instances very quickly.
Many retail businesses and social venues such as theme parks are closed, restaurants are only offering take out or delivery, and most school campuses have been closed for weeks.
On Tuesday, San Francisco and six surrounding counties extended shelterin-place orders until May 3 and added new restrictions, including closing playgrounds, dog parks, public picnic areas, golf courses, tennis and basketball courts, pools, and rockclimbing walls.