By JAMES RAINEY, SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA
APRIL 10, 20205:19 PM
California’s relatively quick action to close businesses and order residents to stay home has tamped down the coronavirus pandemic and left many hospitals largely empty, waiting for a surge that has yet to come. …
By late Friday, California had reported 598 deaths over two and a half months, fewer than New York experienced in a single day Wednesday, when 799 in the Empire State died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. California has averaged just under 45 deaths per day over the last week, with no spike in fatalities.
New York became the epicenter of the disease in America because of several factors. The virus arrived there earlier than elsewhere and in more locations; it is denser than any other U.S. city; it depends more on public transportation, putting people close to one another;
So Philadelphia is slightly closer to Los Angeles in commuting style than it is to New York.
and it was behind California and Washington state in imposing restrictions on public movement, said Nicholas Jewell, a UC Berkeley biostatistician. …
Seven counties in the greater San Francisco Bay Area ordered residents to “shelter in place” and all but essential businesses to close at midnight on March 16, a day when the number of coronavirus deaths in California doubled from six to 12. Three days later, Gov. Gavin Newsom extended the order to the entire state, with the total death toll at just 19.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo made a similar order on March 20, but it did not take effect until Sunday, March 22, at 8 p.m. By then, his state already had recorded at least 150 deaths. That action still preceded lockdowns across much of the nation. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis didn’t impose a stay-at-home order until April 1.
Of course, Florida still isn’t terribly hard hit.
The state’s most populous county, Los Angeles, continued to record the biggest share of fatalities, with a total of 244 as of Friday. But the average of 22 deaths-per-day over the previous week included no notable spikes. …
The early action appeared evident in the empty hallways and wards of hospitals around California.
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood
This is a modern billion dollar hospital that opened in 2008. The downside is it only has 550 beds for its one million square feet of floorspace.
has been has been unusually quiet, said an attending physician, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. Patients have been admitted, but few.
“It’s almost like ominous,” he said. “The volume has been the lowest it’s been ever.”
There are currently 41 COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital, a figure that appears to have plateaued in recent days, according to the university’s dashboard. The doctor said they are encouraged by the state numbers, but remain anxious.
“Are we just waiting for the peak?” he asked. There had been a “high panic” about a month ago, as doctors and nurses watched television news accounts of overflowing wards in Italy, said the UCLA physician, adding: “Now it’s more like being scared to admit a little bit of confidence, maybe telling everyone … we’ve actually achieved something. We won’t admit to ourselves that we’re out of the woods immediately, until late May.”
By the way, the weather in L.A. has been cool and rainy for the last month, which is nice because now we probably won’t have many brushfires until July or later. But the rain has played havoc with my new Vitamin D fetish.
Smart-thermometer maker Kinsa Health showed that on April 9 just 0.3% of Los Angeles County residents had fevers, as associated with both common flu and the coronavirus, compared with an expected 3.2% for that date.
“Are we just waiting for the peak?” he asked. There had been a “high panic” about a month ago, as doctors and nurses watched television news accounts of overflowing wards in Italy, said the UCLA physician, adding: “Now it’s more like being scared to admit a little bit of confidence, maybe telling everyone … we’ve actually achieved something. We won’t admit to ourselves that we’re out of the woods immediately, until late May.”