California close to passing New York as state with highest number of coronavirus cases
California will soon overtake New York as the state with the highest number of the coronavirus cases if current growth rates of infections continue.
On Tuesday, coronavirus cases in California reached 400,000 according to a Reuters tabulation of pandemic cases, making it the second state after New York to reach the unfortunate milestone.
While New York has reached 412,800 cases, the state has managed to bring down the rate of growth of new cases to 700 a day. California is experiencing a surge and marks more than 8,300 a day on average. In a few days, the number of cases in California should exceed those of New York.
California surges
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has reinstituted strict social distancing guidelines for the state after a surge of new coronavirus cases.In Los Angeles, Mayor Gil Garcetti conceded that the populous city reopened too quickly and added that new lockdown orders for nonessential businesses are likely to follow.
"I do agree those things happened too quickly," Garcetti said, blaming county and state officials.
Garcetti indicated that despite a surge in cases, hospitals were below capacity and the city had enough ventilators. Coronavirus deaths in California are nearing 8,000.
New York recovers
While the coronavirus is spiking in California, New York continues to recover after being the epicenter of the pandemic for months and reporting devastating coronavirus statistics.New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo celebrated the drop in new cases in the state by publicizing a poster last week to commemorate his own leadership in the response to the pandemic.
"What we did was historic because we did tame the beast," Cuomo declared July 13 at a coronavirus briefing. "And they will be talking about what we did for decades to come."
However, some like CNN's Jake Tapper have scolded Cuomo for taking a triumphant "victory tour" while ignoring the massive personal and economic cost of the failures of his administration early in the pandemic.
"NY state has lost more than 32,000 lives to COVID-19. So while it's great that the numbers have gone down, it's perplexing to see crowing, Cuomo going on Fallon, etc. No other state has lost as many lives, not even close," Tapper tweeted.
Others noted that experts believed the epidemic in New York was so bad that the state helped spread the virus to the rest of the United States.
