Three months after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an unprecedented statewide stay-at-home order designed to stem the spread of the coronavirus, California recorded its highest single-day count of COVID-19 cases.
Monday’s tally of more than 8,000 infections broke the state’s daily record for the third time in eight days.
On Tuesday, the state was faced with a new grim milestone: passing the threshold of 6,000 coronavirus-related deaths.
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The enormous surge in cases, which now totals more than 223,900 statewide, has prompted New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to order anyone traveling to the state from California – and 15 other states that have seen recent spikes in cases – to self-quarantine for 14 days.
If you’re traveling to New York from the following states you must self-quarantine for 14 days.
The states are: AL, AR, AZ, CA, FL, GA, IA, ID, LA, MS, NC, NV, SC, TN, TX, UT.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) June 30, 2020
The increase is not simply the result of expanded testing capacity, officials have said.
The growing rate of positive infections and a spike in hospitalizations are proof the virus is spreading within communities. Health officials have attributed the rising numbers to a combination of events: the further reopening of many businesses, mass protests over the death of George Floyd and clusters of private gatherings.
“We’ve been very clear — this shouldn’t surprise anybody watching — as you reopen the economy, as we move away and make the meaningful modifications which we did to our stay-at-home order, you’re going to see people mixing that were not mixing in the past,” Newsom said during a news conference Monday.
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In the months since the pandemic struck the U.S., nothing in the fight against the virus has changed except people’s social behaviors, experts say. The state is now closely monitoring 19 counties for surges in cases — which recently have skewed toward younger residents — and hospitalizations, which still largely affect older residents and those with underlying health conditions.
Some counties, including several in the Bay Area, have begun to step back their reopening efforts.
Los Angeles County was one of seven counties ordered Sunday by the state to close its bars. On Monday, local officials announced that beaches will be closed over the July 4 weekend, a little over a month after reopening ahead of Memorial Day weekend.
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L.A. County health officials now estimate that 1 in 140 people are unknowingly infected with the coronavirus, a massive increase since last week’s projection of 1 in 400. With that in mind, Health Services Director Dr. Christina Ghaly said that officials were preparing for a surge in hospitalizations and an “increase in mortality” in the coming weeks.
Officials had warned of the possibility of a spike in cases with a resurgence in activity, but they weren’t prepared for the speed at which the jump would occur.
“What we didn’t expect was to see this steep an increase this quickly,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Monday, following L.A. County’s highest single-day tally of cases, which brought the county past 100,000 infections.
