California Is First State to Top 5M COVID Cases

But new cases are only a third of the national rate
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 28, 2021 6:05 PM CST
California Is First State to Top 5M COVID Cases
People line up for a free COVID-19 rapid test at a gas station in the Reseda section of Los Angeles on Sunday, Dec. 26, 2021, as California braces for a post-holiday virus surge.   (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

California is the first state to record more than 5 million known coronavirus infections, according to the state dashboard Tuesday, which was delayed by the holiday weekend. The grim milestone, as reported by the California Department of Public Health, wasn’t entirely unexpected in a state with 40 million residents poised for a surge in new infections amid holiday parties and family gatherings forced indoors by a series of winter storms, the AP reports. The first coronavirus case in California was confirmed Jan. 25, 2020. It took 292 days to get to 1 million infections on Nov. 11 of that year, and 44 days from then to top 2 million. California has recorded more than 75,500 deaths related to COVID-19.

California’s caseload is also ahead of other large states. Texas had more than 4.4 million cases and Florida topped 3.9 million as of Sunday. The state has fared far better than many other states that are dealing with a coronavirus surge, with areas in the Midwest and Northeast seeing the biggest jump in cases and hospitalizations amid frigid temperatures that have kept people indoors. The CDC lists California as a place with "high" transmission of the virus, along with nearly everywhere else in the country. But in the last week California averaged 16.4 new cases per 100,000 people, less than a third of the national rate. COVID-related hospitalizations have been rising slowly in California, up about 12% in the last 7 days to 4,401. That’s less than half as many as during the late summer peak and one-fifth of a year ago, before vaccines were widely available.

(More COVID-19 stories.)

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