California Surpasses New York In COVID Deaths

California became the worst affected U.S. state in terms of total cases of coronavirus infection and deaths due to the disease.

The golden state, which is already far ahead of other states in the number of cases, on Wednesday surpassed New York as the US state with the highest number of Covid-19 fatalities since the beginning of the pandemic.

A total of 45,496 people have so far died of Covid-19 in California, which has a rolling daily average of nearly 500 deaths. It eclipsed New York’s total of 45,312 deaths. New Jersey has the highest rate of deaths per capita.

For the fourth straight day, the number of new cases reported nationally is below 100000. With more than 93,000 additional people diagnosed with the viral infection on Wednesday, the total U.S. cases rose to 27,285,621, as per latest data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. With 3219 new deaths, the national total rose to 468,103.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are continuing to decline. A total of 76,979 COVID patients are currently admitted in hospitals across the country, according to COVID Tracking Project. Out of this, 16,715 patients are admitted in Intensive Care Units.

For the first time since October 22, no states are reporting more than 400 COVID-19 hospitalizations per million people.

Double masking can significantly improve protection from coronavirus infection, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We continue to recommend that masks should have two or more layers, completely cover your nose and mouth, and fit snugly against your nose and the sides of your face,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told a White House briefing, citing research finding.

As per White House COVID-19 Response Team’s vaccination progress report, the seven-day average daily doses administered is now 1.5 million shots per day, up from 1.1 million only two weeks ago.

Dr.Fauci said persons 16 to 64 years of age with underlying conditions should get vaccinated because they are more vulnerable to the more severe effects of coronavirus if they do get infected. CDC and the FDA will be starting clinical trials to find the safety of the vaccination of children and pregnant women. He told reporters that the UK variant of the virus might become dominant in the United States by the end of March.

Jeff Zients, the White House COVID-19 coordinator, said that at the President’s direction, the administration is moving quickly to get more vaccinators on the ground, including retired doctors and nurses. “We’ve deployed hundreds of personnel across the federal government, from FEMA to USDA to HHS and other federal agencies, to support vaccination operations nationwide,” he told reporters.

He also said three new major community vaccination centers will be built in Dallas, Arlington, and Houston — communities hit hard by the pandemic – in partnership with the state of Texas. These sites are expected to start vaccination on February 22.

Separately, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the opening of two new community vaccination centers in underserved communities in the state.

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