Coronavirus updates: At least 65 California deaths; U.S. cases surpass Italy and China
The coronavirus pandemic is continuing to deal devastating blows to health care systems, the economy and society at large as California and other state governments scramble to respond.
The highly contagious virus on Thursday shot past 525,000 confirmed worldwide infections, according to a frequently updated data map by Johns Hopkins University, and has caused more than 23,000 deaths.
The United States now has the most confirmed coronavirus cases in the world, surpassing Italy and China. Nearly 1,200 people in the U.S. have died from the virus, according to the data.
On Thursday, there are more than 82,400 COVID-19 cases in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins. Italy had 80,589 confirmed cases while China had 81,782.
New York state and New York City have been epicenters, with 38,000 infections statewide and over 380 deaths, including 280 in the city.
But health experts, as well as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, warn the “astronomical” growth in coronavirus cases in that state is destined to hit numerous other U.S. states within a matter of weeks if not days, California included.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and city and county leaders throughout the state continue to simultaneously address two already huge issues that are still developing: the necessity of “flattening” or “bending” the coronavirus growth curve to levels that won’t overwhelm health systems; plus the unprecedented economic impacts already being felt across the state of nearly 40 million people who have now been under Newsom’s mandatory stay-at-home order for one week.
California’s latest numbers: Over 3,000 infected, at least 65 dead
Statewide, the California Department of Health has confirmed 3,006 coronavirus cases as of 2 p.m. Wednesday, including at least 65 deaths.
That’s 12 more confirmed fatalities and nearly 500 new cases reported in 24 hours, as state health officials had given totals of 53 dead and 2,535 infected as of 2 p.m. Tuesday. The state’s official death toll more than doubled in three days, up from 27 as of 2 p.m. Sunday.
State health officials now say more than 800 of the cases were community transmitted, while the rest of the cases are either still under investigation or were acquired through person-to-person transmission with a known case, travel or repatriation flights. Person-to-person transmission includes at least 42 known health care workers, the state said in Thursday’s update.
More than half of the state-confirmed cases (1,505) involve patients between ages 18 and 49.
At least 113 of California’s cases and five of the fatalities have come in Sacramento County, public health officials said in a Wednesday update.
Unemployment skyrockets in California, across U.S.
California saw 186,809 new unemployment claims last week, up dramatically from 57,606 the week before, as businesses deemed nonessential throughout the state have closed their doors. Newsom during a Wednesday news conference said the state has recorded more than 1 million unemployment claims since March 13.
The state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office has estimated the first benefits for new claimants will take at least 21 days.
California gives jobless benefits of up to $450 a week. Under the economic stimulus plan passed by the Senate Wednesday night and heading to the House on Friday, workers will be able to get another $600 weekly for four months.
However, a report by the Legislative Analyst’s Office gave a grim warning about the timeline for upping unemployment benefits:
“Due to the limitations of (the state Employment Development Department’s) current information technology systems, changing (unemployment insurance) benefit levels — for instance, by increasing the maximum weekly benefit amount or setting a minimum weekly benefit floor — could take as long as a year to implement,” analysts wrote.
The California surge reflects the situation across the U.S., where seasonally adjusted initial claims totaled 3.3 million, an increase of about 3 million from the previous week. The California figure is not seasonally adjusted.
That nationwide total is far above the previous record of about 695,000 claims, set in October 1982.
Newsom on Wednesday also announced three major banks — Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Citi and J.P. Morgan Chase — each agreed to 90-day mortgage payment waivers for those affected by COVID-19. About 200 of California’s state-chartered banks and credit unions have also agreed to delay foreclosures and mortgage payments for impacted households, the governor said.
Sixth resident of Sacramento-area senior facility tests positive
Six residents of Carlton Senior Living in Elk Grove have apparently tested positive for the coronavirus, according to an email sent to family members Wednesday obtained by The Sacramento Bee. Among them was a woman in her 90s who earlier this month became Sacramento County’s first COVID-19 death.
On March 19, the facility told family members five residents had tested positive. As of that time, three of them were staying at the facility, the email said, and the facility started testing all residents.
On Wednesday, Carlton sent an email saying it had received the majority of the 100 test results from the Department of Public Health, with one positive result. The email did not say if that resident was staying in his or her apartment in the facility, at the hospital or elsewhere.
El Dorado County: Most short-term rental stays are not ‘essential’
El Dorado County has issued a directive that effectively says residents should observe the mandatory statewide and countywide stay-at-home orders from their permanent residence.
The update came Tuesday from the county’s public health officer, Dr. Nancy Williams, and addressed stays in short-term rentals, “defined as a period of less than 30 days at facilities including hotels, motels, condominiums, campgrounds, other units,” the county directive said, adding that staying in a short-term rental for “recreation, tourism or as a location other than one’s residence to ‘shelter in place’ is not considered an essential activity.”
The directive, though, includes exemptions for facilities that are being used as “COVID-19 mitigation and containment measures,” and also says that anyone residing at short-term lodging prior to March 20 may continue to do so under the terms of their existing rental agreement.
“Despite the Governor’s Order to stay home except when necessary and our continued plea to recreate at home, many residents have flocked to Lake Tahoe and other tourist destinations for nothing more than a change of scenery, allowing for a possible increase in the spread of COVID-19,” Williams said in a statement.
The directive is already being shared by cities near Tahoe popular with tourists and, in a bit of irony, by tourism officials.
“This is something I thought I’d never have to say throughout my tourism career, but please stay home at this time,” said Carol Chaplin, CEO and president of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority.
Those remarks came as Californians, ordered last Thursday by Newsom to stay home for all but essential activities, crowded trails and beaches throughout the state last weekend.
Newsom’s order had said people could still go outside for exercise, but didn’t set any specific limitations on where they could go to do so.
“This Directive sends a very strong statement: people should get their exercise and change of pace from their own backyards and neighborhoods rather than travel to a different destination and risk carrying the virus to other locales,” Williams said in a statement.
Likewise, the El Dorado County city of South Lake Tahoe in a Monday statement asked local vacation home rental permittees, hotels and motels “to cease renting to non-exempt short-term visitors until at least April 23.”
Some eviction moratoriums pass, others considered
California cities and counties have begun halting evictions against tenants who cannot afford rent, as the mass closure of businesses brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has stalled local economies.
As of Wednesday in the Sacramento region, the cities of Sacramento, Davis, West Sacramento, Woodland and Yolo County have passed legally enforceable ordinances regarding temporary eviction bans, put in place for those financially impacted by COVID-19.
Elk Grove, in a Wednesday special meeting, unanimously approved an emergency ordinance that will suspend evictions and utility shutoffs for residents impacted by the virus.
More municipalities in the coming weeks will consider or may propose similar bans. A moratorium protecting renters in Sacramento County will go into effect May 1. Citrus Heights and Rancho Cordova are also considering bans, according to the California Apartment Association.
San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles are among the many local governments in California that have already passed eviction moratoriums.
To apply, renters must have documentation proving they lost significant income due to the coronavirus crisis. Some of those reasons include being sick with COVID-19 or caring for a household member sick with the virus; being laid off from work due to the coronavirus crisis; or needing to miss work to care for a school-age child, as the vast majority of public K-12 school districts have closed due to coronavirus concerns.
Rent deferred under such a moratorium will be due at a later date, which varies by municipality. In the city of Sacramento, renters will have up to four months after the California state of emergency declaration ends to pay the deferred rent. The declaration is currently set to end May 31, meaning the deferred rent would be due Sept. 31.
Sacramento County jails to release hundreds of inmates
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday that any inmates who have fewer than 60 days remaining on their sentence and who are not in jail for convictions of domestic violence, DUI or any offense requiring sex offender registration will be released Monday.
That results in a total of 421 inmates being set free from the county’s two jails, one in downtown Sacramento as well as the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center near Elk Grove. A week earlier, sheriff’s officials announced the release of another 120 inmates considered nonviolent and nonserious offenders from those two jails.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Sgt. Tess Deterding said the inmate releases free up space that can be used to isolate inmates who test positive for COVID-19. Deterding said that as of Wednesday, no inmates tested positive for the virus.
UC Davis Medical Center nurses speak out, dispute hospital’s claims
Two nurses, who spoke to The Bee this week on conditions of anonymity for fear of retaliation or being fired, said they believe they contracted the virus while working at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. One nurse has tested positive for COVID-19, while the other was at home sick Wednesday with symptoms but has not yet been tested.
Hospital spokesman Charles Casey said administrators are confident in saying staff members are being infected outside the hospital because UC Davis Medical Center has a dedicated “Infection Prevention team” that tracks all communicable diseases among patients and their interactions with staff members.
“This is becoming increasingly more difficult as COVID-19 increases in the community,” Casey said in an email. “All of the employees who have tested positive to date have been most likely community-acquired infections. We say ‘most likely’ because we can’t definitively state what happens to people outside the hospital.”
Casey added that “inside the hospital, we have only been able to connect one of the few positive-testing employees” as having had contact with “any of the few COVID-19 patients we’ve cared for in the past month.”
The nurses, and at least one UC Davis radiologist, disagreed.
“I mean that’s just absurd. We’re working around the highest-risk people in the whole entire community,” said the nurse who was at home sick Wednesday. “So to tell us, ‘Well, you’re just going to catch it from the community, so sort of don’t worry about what we’re doing at the hospital.’ That’s a cop-out.”
Dr. Thomas Loehfelm, a UC Davis radiologist, tweeted Wednesday: “The *whole* point is that we don’t *know* which patients are positive! 30% of cases are asymptomatic. For every case you found assume there are 10 more unidentified- asymptomatic or presymptomatic- among our patients, Drs, staff.”
Casey countered that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says those who are most contagious are the ones showing symptoms.
Worldwide COVID-19 cases still growing exponentially
The data map by Johns Hopkins University showed a total of more than 490,000 global cases as of 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time.
Italy accounts for about 80,000 cases and more than 8,500 deaths, and the United States has reported more than 75,000 infections and almost 1,110 deaths as of midday Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins. China, once the epicenter of coronavirus activity, is near 82,000 cases and 3,300 reported deaths, but has seen growth rates slow significantly in recent weeks amid aggressive measures to contain and slow spread.
Next after the U.S. are Spain at 56,000 cases and over 4,100 deaths; Germany at 43,000 cases but just 239 confirmed fatalities; Iran at 29,000 cases and more than 2,200 dead; France with 25,000 cases and more than 1,300 dead; and Switzerland with 11,000 infected and just over 190 deaths.
Within the United States, New York state has a staggering 38,000 infections and at least 385 deaths. New Jersey, where almost 7,000 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed, has at least 81 reported deaths with a significant jump reported early Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins.
Washington state has seen more than 130 deaths among 2,600 cases. Louisiana jumped to 83 cases and 2,300 total infections. Michigan has surpassed 2,800 infections and 50 fatalities. Florida has close to 2,400 cases, with 23 fatalities.
Colorado, Pennsylvania, Texas, Georgia, Massachusetts and Illinois each had between 1,000 and 2,000 confirmed cases as of Wednesday morning, per Johns Hopkins. Those states ranged from 15 to 48 fatalities as of early Thursday afternoon Pacific Time.
Reminder: What is COVID-19? How is coronavirus spread?
Coronavirus is spread through contact between people within 6 feet of each other, especially through coughing and sneezing that expels respiratory droplets that land in the mouths or noses of people nearby. The CDC says it’s possible to catch the disease COVID-19 by touching something that has the virus on it, and then touching your own face, “but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
Symptoms of the virus that causes COVID-19 include fever, cough and shortness of breath, which may occur two days to two weeks after exposure. Most develop only mild symptoms, but some people develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal. The disease is especially dangerous to the elderly and others with weaker immune systems.
This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 8:27 AM.
