Gov. Newsom gave an update on coronavirus and the vaccines in his first address of the new year.
Newsom says there are more than 29,000 cases of COVID-19 in California today, with 97 new deaths. There are more than 2.4 million cases and more than 26,600 deaths in the state so far.
“This is a deadly disease. This is a deadly pandemic. It remains more deadly today than at any point in the history of this pandemic,” he says.
The Southern California region and San Joaquin Valley are both still at 0% ICU capacity, while the Bay Area has a 7.9% ICU capacity.
Newsom said technical assistance teams have been deployed to help with decompression, space, equipment, supplies and oxygen to Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Joaquin.
“Because of the strain, stress down in Los Angeles, in particular, we have organized a statewide oxygen strategy. We actually have a task force on oxygen,” Newsom said, adding there is the creation of a state oxygen team as well as bulk oxygen support.
Newsom said the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers have been deployed to seven facilities: five facilities to Los Angeles and two facilities in San Bernardino County.
VACCINES
Vaccinations are underway in California with initial vaccinations going to healthcare workers and residents at nursing facilities in Phase 1A of the rollout. Newsom says the state is aggressively working to accelerate the pace of the vaccine administration with strategies including dentists administering the vaccine, pharmacy techs at places like CVS and Walgreens, help from the National Guard and clinic and doctor partnerships.
“The state has in its possession about 1.29 million doses, and we have about 611,000 that are going to be shipped,” Newsom said. 454,306 doses have been administered across the state as of Jan. 3. He said the second doses will be arriving this week.
The state's vaccine advisory committee has now signed off on Phase 1B, which will include multiple tiers. Tier One is made up of people 75 years of age and above and workers in education, childcare, emergency services, food and agriculture.
Tier Two is people 65 years of age and above, workers in transportation, industrial and commercial facilities and people who are incarcerated or homeless.
Phase 1C will be people age 50 years of age and above, people age 16 and up with underlying medical conditions and/or disability and workers in water and waste management, defense, energy and more.
California rolled out the Pfizer vaccine initially and recently began to administer the Moderna vaccine last month.
Meanwhile, a team of California National Guardsmen is set to land in SoCal Monday to help overwhelmed private mortuaries and hospital morgues handle the crush of coronavirus deaths in Los Angeles County. The California National Guardsman will help the LA County Medical Examiner-Coroner process the deaths.