California surpasses New York as the U.S. state with the most deaths from COVID-19

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) – California on Tuesday surpassed New York as the U.S. state with the most coronavirus deaths, a reminiscent smile of the pandemic’s weigh-in, even when the vaccine rolled out and a sharp drop in new cases they boosted life expectancies which eventually returned to normal.

More than 45,000 people died late Tuesday due to COVID-19 in California, the most populous of the 50 states and one of the hardest hit in recent months. New York, severely affected in the early stages of the pandemic last spring, has reported the loss of 44,693 lives, according to a Reuters account. here

“This is a heartbreaking reminder that COVID-19 is a deadly virus, and we regret alongside all Californians who have suffered the tragic loss of a loved one during this pandemic,” said Dr. Mark Ghaly, Secretary of Health of the state, milestone in an email to Reuters.

California, home to some 40 million people, emerged as the main U.S. epicenter of the pandemic during a wave of infections and hospitalizations that ravaged much of the country in recent years, pushing many health care systems to the brink. its limits.

When considered in terms of per capita deaths, California, with 113 deaths per 100,000 people, ranks 32nd in the country in terms of mortality from COVID-19. In comparison, New York, with 230 deaths per 100,000, ranks second only after New Jersey, which has recorded some 248 coronavirus deaths per 100,000 residents.

Across the country, daily records of new cases and hospitalizations for COVID-19 have been steadily declining in recent weeks, while deaths, an indicator of delay, have been reduced.

The United States as a whole reported 27.25 million infections and 468,559 deaths as of Tuesday’s end. Just over 79,000 U.S. patients were hospitalized Tuesday with COVID-19, the lowest daily number since mid-November.

But in California, as in other states, the improvement overshadows a march of illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths, which are still much higher than those recorded at the peak of the pandemic last summer.

The number of lives reported daily in the state has declined in recent weeks, but remains “remarkably” high, with an average of 500 fatalities a day over the past 14 days, Gov. Gavin Newsom said at the press.

“The deaths are still devastating,” said Newsom, who spoke at the opening of a vaccination site at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara County, near San Francisco.

Public health experts fear that meetings for Sunday’s Super Bowl celebrations, as well as the arrival of new highly contagious variants of the virus, could lead to a further increase in cases before most Americans are vaccinated. .

In an effort to speed up the ongoing vaccination campaign to stop the pandemic, President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that his administration planned to increase the number of doses of vaccines sent to states, beginning Feb. 15.

Part of the expanded supply will be sent to community health centers in an effort to improve access to the vaccine for the mostly poor and minority populations these centers serve, the White House said Tuesday.

On Tuesday, approximately 33 million Americans had received at least one dose of vaccine to fight coronavirus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“This vaccine is the weapon that will win this war,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday. Ten percent of New York State residents have received the vaccine, he said.

(This story corrects two figures that were reversed in the fifth paragraph, to show that New Jersey had 248 deaths per 100,000 and New York had 230 per 100,000).