California’s confirmed coronavirus cases have topped 409,000, surpassing New York for most in the country, according to data from John’s Hopkins University showing on Wednesday.
California now has about 1,200 more cases than New York, where its deaths total 72,302, which by far the highest total in the country, and nine times more than California’s tally, and its rate of confirmed infections of about 2,100 per 100,000 people is twice California’s rate.
California is by far the most populous U.S. state, with nearly 40 million people, while New York has about 19.5 million.
Data from the U.S. government released Tuesday showed that reports of coronavirus recorded and confirmed significantly exceed the true number of infections, echoing findings from a smaller study last month.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study noted that true coronavirus rates were more than 10 times higher than reported cases in most U.S. regions from late March to early May.
California initially succeeded in slowing the spread of the virus, however, the state has had a sharp reversal with the infection rates climbing sharply in recent weeks.
Throughout May and June, California reopened much of its economy, and people resumed shopping in stores and dining in restaurants. Infections surged again, which lead to a new round of business restrictions, including a ban on indoor dining in restaurants and bars.
Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous with 10 million residents, reported that younger people were driving the spread of new infections, as well as more than half of the county’s new cases came from people under age 41 and the county’s coronavirus deaths was at 4,154 with positive cases topping 161,670, the county’s Department of Public Health said.
The novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, and has infected more than one million people and killed over 234,139 worldwide. It also hit several celebrities and top political figures around the world.
The virus is a new member of the Coronaviruses group, which was never identified in humans. The viruses’ family also includes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV), which cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases.
Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Humans and animals such as mammals and birds can be affected by the disease.
The name coronavirus is derived from the Latin corona, meaning “crown” or “halo”.
On February 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the official name for the disease caused by the new coronavirus is Covid-19, taken from the words “corona”, “virus” and “disease”.
In December 2019, an outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China. On 31 December 2019, the outbreak was traced to a novel strain of coronavirus, which was given the interim name 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was later renamed SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.
On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus a global pandemic as the new virus has rapidly spread to more than 800,000 people from Asia to the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.
Transmission of viruses between humans happens when someone comes into contact with an infected person’s secretions, such as droplets in a cough.
Coronavirus can also be transmitted by coming into contact with something an infected person has touched and then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes.
It is known that older people appear to be more vulnerable to the effects of the emerging virus.
The virus caused complete paralysis in all activities and events with large gatherings worldwide due to concerns over the spread of the virus.
People across the globe partake in self-isolation for 14 days as an effective precautionary measure to protect those around them and themselves from contracting COVID-19.
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