LOS ANGELES – A few months ago, California was the epicenter of a coronovirus epidemic at US Hospitals in Los Angeles, drowning in patients, and the ambulances were idling outside with people struggling to breathe, waiting for beds to open. .
The death toll was staggering – so much so that hens filled and refrigerated trucks were brought in to handle the overflow.
Now that spike cases are on the rise in other parts of the country, California is the first in the US to have the lowest infection rate, as it reopens to more businesses with greater customer numbers and larger celebrations. Has moved quickly to allow.
A scramble to obtain COVID-19 vaccination has led to open invitations at many locations. Where people line up for hours and counties struggle to get a dose, there is now a glimpse of shots at many places.
“It’s been a success story for us from California, if you will, after the holiday season for the viral tsunami that we’re coming back to now,” Dr. Dr. of Robert Kim-Farley University Public Health School of California, Los Angeles.
At the peak of California’s winter surge following Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year holidays, the state was recording 40,000 new and well over 500 deaths per day. Those numbers have come down to 2,300 new cases and 68 deaths per day.
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the state overtook Hawaii on Thursday with the lowest average number of cases per capita in the past two weeks. One out of every 2,416 people in California tested positive last week. At the other end of the spectrum, one in every 223 people in Michigan was detected with the virus.
Kim-Farley said that it is like a giant tanker ship to reach the level of improvement today. He credited the government and public health agencies with clear guidelines that businesses, schools and individuals are largely pursued, including masked mandates and social disturbances.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is allowing businesses and schools to reopen by county on a case level basis. At various points in the epidemic, she has faced heavy criticism for being too restrictive, and now has some concern that she is moving too fast.
All counties have improved enough to get out of the toughest of the four levels, and 38 of the 58 counties – accounting for 87% of the state’s population – are now in the second lowest restrictive level. Newsom said it plans to lift most coronovirus bans by June 15.
The epidemic has risen unevenly across America
Cases were lower a year earlier in California than in New York, where hospitals were overwhelmed last spring. When California was in a second winter spike in mid-January, Michigan cases were rising to a low point in February before rising to the highest current infection rate in the US.
Kim-Farley said the California boom had caused more people to fear wearing masks, a rule still in place that they said they helped prevent a resurgence.
“While some states in the United States have lifted the Niqab mandate, the increasing number of its cases are suffering the consequences, while we are steadily decreasing,” he said.
California is struggling with its vaccine rollout like other states, limiting doses for health workers and the elderly who were at greater risk of hospitalization or dying. As cases have decreased, the dose has increased, and the high number of infections in winter also led to a certain level of natural immunity.
Only weeks earlier, the counties struggled to get a dose. The state’s limited aptitude for the precious vaccine, and theatrical stories of cinemas jumping off the line to get a shot.
The Vaccine Spotter website that helps with book appointments on Thursday showed a state map in green dots, indicating available appointments. Many were available on a single day, and some sites were allowing people to show up without appointments.
Los Angeles County opened sites in Palmdale and Lancaster to walk-up. The largest mass vaccination clinic in Napa County saw flooding demand in recent days when vaccine eligibility was expanded to all people 16 and older in California last week. It is also allowing walk-ins.
“We definitely have the potential,” said county spokesman Janet Upton. “But what we lack now is public interest.”
California has about 40 million residents, and more than half of the 32 million eligible vaccines have received at least one shot.
There is a combination of concern over reports of rare complications with misinformation and conspiracy theories and a threat among some that the vaccine inhibition has been reduced.
Barbara Ferrer, director of Los Angeles County Public Health, tried to convince more people to set aside concerns about the vaccine, noting that serious side effects were likely similar to dying in a 200-mile road trip Is what most people would not hesitate to take. .
“They said the risk of serious side effects from the COVID vaccine is about one in a million,” he said. “We take these small risks every day as we go about our lives because we know what is on the other side of it that is so meaningful. Similarly, a return to normalcy on the other side of vaccination is meaningful. “
With the rollout of the vaccine, mortaries running out of space have become commonplace.
“It’s the difference between night and day,” said Todd Beckley, general manager of the Tanglewood Cemetery Morchery. “There was a time when we had nine deaths in one day, and they were all COVIDs. We did not have a COVID death in four days.
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