Gov. Newsom gave his latest COVID-19 briefing in a taped 14-minute address Friday.
It has been a terrible week for the state with 41,000 new cases and 300 deaths recorded on Thursday alone. The state’s positivity rate continues to soar as well, reaching 11.8% in the 14-day average and a full percentage point higher in the 7-day average.
The Southern California and San Joaquin Valley regions have reached 0% ICU capacity and the numbers are dwindling in Sacramento and the Bay Area as well.
The one upside is that thousands of healthcare workers have now received their first of two shots of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
But California will not receive as many doses of the vaccine next week as originally expected. Instead of the 327,000 doses originally set to arrive next week, California will receive about 233,000 doses. In fact, many states are seeing their expected shipments reduced by as much as 40%.
“We talked to Pfizer ourselves, directly. They claim they have more vaccines but are not getting the authorization from the federal government for distribution,” said Gov. Newsom.
Federal officials say there was a miscommunication with states, with states working off of projected estimates instead of the latest figures. But governors in many states have pushed back against that claim, saying the shipments have been confirmed several times.
“It’s been a point of frustration – friction, to be candid with you. It’s been expressed by many, many governors all across the country regardless of even political party,” said Newsom.
The governor says he is communicating with the White House to get to the bottom of the situation.
Much-needed doses of Moderna’s vaccine are set to start arriving next week after the FDA officially approved it Friday.