With coronavirus-related deaths in California climbing to 55, state officials are warning that the worst is still to come as the virus continues to spread.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti warned Tuesday that residents should be prepared for more loss of life as the pandemic expands.
Garcetti said L.A. could be six to 12 days from seeing similar numbers to the outbreak in New York City, where the death toll has dramatically increased in recent days.
“It’s coming,” Garcetti said. “The peak is not here yet. The peak will be bad. People will lose their lives.”
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The mayor also rebuffed President Trump’s earlier comments that he wanted to quickly ease restrictions and said that Angelenos should be “prepared for a couple months like this.”
“I know that everybody is hopeful, and some are putting out that hope of us being back in churches by Easter or synagogues by Passover or restarting the economy in a couple weeks,” Garcetti said. “I think we owe it to everybody to be straightforward and honest. We will not be back to ... that level of normal in that short period of time.”
Coronavirus infection cases in the state now top 2,600. But that number is expected to dramatically rise as more testing occurs. New York has recorded more than 200 deaths and 26,000 total cases.
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California officials think they also will see major spikes in the coming days and weeks.
San Francisco officials said earlier this week that a surge in coronavirus infection is expected to come within a week or two.
“The worst is yet to come,” San Francisco Director of Health Dr. Grant Colfax said at a news conference Monday. “Every community where the virus has taken hold has seen a surge in the number of coronavirus patients who need to be hospitalized. We expect that to happen in San Francisco soon, in a week or two, or perhaps even less.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Trump’s remarks did not reflect reality in California.
“April for California would be sooner than any of the experts that I talked to believe is possible,” Newsom said.
Newsom now expects California will need 50,000 hospital beds to deal with COVID-19 patients, more than double what his administration forecast last week. He said the state’s 416 hospitals will execute “surge plans” to create 30,000 new beds.
Newsom also ordered a halt to the intake and transfer of inmates at the state’s 35 prisons and four youth correctional facilities. He said British billionaire Richard Branson will donate medical gear to help healthcare workers, joining efforts by Tesla and Apple executives.
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In L.A. County, officials on Tuesday confirmed four new deaths linked to the virus, bringing the countywide death toll to 11. The county noted an additional 128 cases of coronavirus infection, pushing the total to 662.
The Los Angeles Police Department said 11 officers have tested positive, two of them members of its senior command staff. In Orange County, health officials confirmed the county’s first virus-related death, a man in his 70s with underlying health issues who was getting treatment at a hospital. The number of infected people reached 152 in Orange County, with 27 new reported cases.
San Mateo County reported two more deaths Wednesday, bringing the total there to five. In the state, the total number of deaths linked to the coronavirus has reached 55.
Officials said coronavirus may have taken the life of a Lancaster teenager, possibly the nation’s first death of a person under 18 related to the virus.
L.A. County Public Health Department Director Barbara Ferrer called it “a devastating reminder that COVID-19 affects people of all ages.” But in a statement late Tuesday, public health officials noted that although “early tests indicated a positive result for COVID-19, the case is complex and there may be an alternate explanation” besides the coronavirus for the death.
In an interview Tuesday, Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said the teenage boy died of septic shock, and that the youth’s father is infected with the coronavirus.
As officials try to determine the exact cause of death for the youth, it’s possible that the coronavirus and bacterial infection are correlated, one expert said.
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2020-03-25 14:51:54Z
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