After a relative New Year’s lull in confirmed infections, California posted a new single-day record for coronavirus cases Monday, logging more than 74,000, according to a Times tally of local health jurisdictions.
That is 11% higher than the previous record, when 66,726 cases were registered Dec. 28. The state is now averaging about 37,000 cases a day over the last week, down from a high of about 45,000 in mid-December. But the situation is still far worse than the beginning of December, when 14,000 cases a day were recorded.
California also posted its sixth-highest daily tally of COVID-19 deaths Monday: 379. That increased the average number of COVID-19 deaths over the last week to 353 a day, the highest number yet.
In Los Angeles County on Monday, an additional 79 coronavirus-related deaths were reported and 10,851 infections were reported. The county is now averaging 184 deaths a day over the last week — the equivalent of someone dying of COVID-19 every eight minutes — and about 13,500 cases a day, a count expected to grow because many testing sites were closed for the New Year’s holiday.
The immense infection count is “a human disaster, and one that was avoidable,” County Supervisor Hilda Solis said.
“The situation is already beyond our imagination,” she said during a briefing Monday. “But it could become beyond comprehension if the health restrictions in place are not fully obeyed.”
Even when figures are adjusted to account for the state’s population, California’s coronavirus outbreak ranks among the worst in the country.
Over the past week, California has averaged roughly 96 new daily cases per 100,000 residents — tied with Rhode Island for the second-highest rate among all states, behind only Arizona’s 112, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The nationwide daily average for new cases over that same period has been about 64.
While many of those infected with the coronavirus may experience only mild symptoms — or none at all — California health officials have warned that a sizable slice, about 12%, will fall ill enough to require hospitalization within a few weeks after they are exposed.
A significant and sustained wave of new infections, then, will invariably slam hospitals with additional patients.
“This week is critical in terms of a bigger understanding of where we are and if we’re going to hit that surge on top of a surge, on top of yet another surge,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said.
Though the figures dipped somewhat around New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, the number of coronavirus-positive patients hospitalized statewide rose to 21,597 Monday, a new record. Of those patients, 4,634 were in intensive care units.
The story is much the same on the local level, as California’s most-populated counties continue to see record or near-record levels of hospitalizations.
Conditions in ICUs, which require specialized staff and equipment to care for the sickest patients, are of particular concern. The availability of intensive care beds in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley has stood at 0% for weeks — a distressing metric that doesn’t mean that no beds are available at all, because the state uses a weighted formula to ensure that some remain open for non-COVID patients, but does indicate that hospital capacity is stretched to the limit.
Health officials in San Joaquin County reported Monday that the need for intensive care had reached an all-time high, with adult ICUs at 175% above their licensed bed capacity.
“The impact of COVID-19 on the members of our community and our healthcare system is glaring,” Dan Burch, the county’s EMS administrator, said in a statement.
In the Bay Area and Greater Sacramento, where ICU availability stood at 7.9% and 12.1%, respectively, as of Monday, the situation is less dire, but still concerning.
All four of the state-defined regions where ICU availability is below 15% are under stay-at-home orders, which include a host of restrictions on businesses and activities aimed at stymying coronavirus transmission.
Those orders will remain in place until a region’s available ICU capacity, forecast four weeks out, is 15% or higher.
In L.A. County, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients rose to 8,023 on Monday — 125 more than the previous day. Of them, 1,642 were in the ICU, also a record.
“It is getting harder and harder for healthcare workers to care for those coming to the hospital with gunshot wounds, heart attacks, strokes and injuries from car accidents,” Solis said. “Hospitals are declaring internal disasters and having to open church gyms to serve as hospital units. Our healthcare workers are physically and mentally exhausted and sick.”
The growth in the number of COVID-19 patients in ICU wards has been astonishing — quadrupling since late November.
“Given the current state of the pandemic in Los Angeles County, the worst is almost certainly still ahead of us,” Dr. Christina Ghaly, the L.A. County director of health services, warned. “As of today, hospitals continue to be significantly strained. All hospitals are being inundated with COVID patients.”
She described overcrowded conditions at hospitals forced to leave patients in hallways or keep them waiting in ambulances.
“The demand for oxygen is so great that some hospitals are having trouble maintaining an adequate degree of air pressure to keep a high-flow rate of oxygen pumping into lungs of COVID-19 patients that have been inflamed,” Ghaly said.
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As conditions continue to deteriorate, officials have noted with alarm that many Californians disregarded their pleas to stay home for the holidays — while some anti-maskers have joined in protests against the health orders that are in place.
“We are in the midst of an unprecedented and dangerous surge,” Solis said. “Despite what protesters claim, this is not a hoax.”
Ghaly reminded residents of the role they play in battling the worst public healthcare crisis of the last 100 years, and that wearing or not wearing a mask in public doesn’t just affect the person making that choice.
“It’s not about you; it’s about the other people around you,” she said. “And in this time of mass crisis, we need to think of our neighbors. Please show others the basic common courtesy and take the lifesaving action of wearing a mask when you’re around others.”
Times staff writer Andrea Roberson contributed to this report.
