California Is Third State to Pass 25,000 Coronavirus Deaths

California on Thursday surpassed 25,000 coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic, the third state to do so, after New York and Texas, health officials said.

The grim milestone comes as the nation’s most populated state faces a surge of COVID-19 infections that has hospitals stretched to capacity and forced nurses and doctors to treat more patients than usual. California also has confirmed the second reported U.S. case of a mutant variant of the coronavirus that appears to be more contagious.

The state Department of Public Health says hospitals in Southern California and the agricultural San Joaquin Valley, which together account for a large majority of the state’s 40 million residents, have no capacity left in intensive care units to treat COVID-19 patients.

Hospitals are housing patients in hallways, conference rooms, a cafeteria and gift shops. Makeshift hospitals are being set up in tents, arenas and schools.

California was the third state to reach 25,000 deaths, behind New York, which has nearly 38,000 deaths, and Texas, which has more than 27,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

California’s reported its first case of COVID-19 in late January. It recorded its 10,000th death from the virus in August.

Meanwhile, California became the second state after Colorado to report finding a new strain of the virus that was first confirmed in the United Kingdom.

The patient, who developed symptoms on Dec. 27, is a 30-year-old San Diego County man who didn’t have any history of travel, which could indicate that someone else already had brought the new strain into the state, officials said.

It is common for viruses to undergo minor changes as they reproduce and move through a population. Scientists have found no evidence that the variant is more lethal or causes more severe illness, and they believe the vaccines now being dispensed will be effective against it. But the fear is that mutations at some point will become significant enough to defeat the vaccines.

Also, a faster-spreading virus could swamp hospitals with seriously ill patients.

For the full story read the Associated Press, here. 

— The Associated Press