Drop in new coronavirus cases in some Midwestern states offers signs of hope

Arizona is seeing the highest rate of new coronavirus cases in the U.S., according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which shows an average of 121.8 new illnesses per 100,000 people over the last seven days. California is tracking second, with a rate of 97.1 per 100,000, followed by Tennessee, South Carolina, and then Kansas.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Monday said the state has identified its first case of a new, more infectious variant of the coronavirus that was first discovered in the U.K. It was detected in a man in his 60s in Saratoga Springs, about 200 miles north of New York City.

California ended the first weekend of the new year with more than 45,000 new cases of the novel coronavirus as hospitals in the state continue to be overwhelmed.  California on Sunday recorded 45,352 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s total to date to more than 2.3 million, per estimates from the COVID Tracking Project.  Coronavirus-related hospitalizations are continuing to increase as well, with California recording 21,510 current hospitalizations also as of Sunday.

Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who has said he is seriously considering challenging California Gov.

A city near Los Angeles is closing outdoor seating spaces on public property starting Sunday evening amid a spike in COVID-19 cases across the county. The city, Manhattan Beach, is located along the Southern California coast, about 20 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles.

As of late Saturday, the nation has surpassed 350,000 deaths from coronavirus. At least 350,214 deaths have been reported since the start of the pandemic, Johns Hopkins University said.

Scientists in Los Angeles are trying to figure out if the fast-spreading strain of the coronavirus fueling a huge surge in cases in the United Kingdom is behind a similar rise in California. The mutation is up to 70 percent more contagious, but it doesn’t appear to be any more deadly.

California became the first state to record 2 million confirmed coronavirus cases, reaching the milestone on Christmas Eve as nearly the entire state was under a strict stay-at-home order and hospitals were flooded with the largest crush of cases since the pandemic began. A tally by Johns Hopkins University showed the nation's most populous state has recorded 2,010,157 infections since January.

There is a surge in COVID-19 cases in California despite unprecedented lockdowns and restrictions aimed at curbing the spreading of the coronavirus.  Earlier this week, the state surpassed 2 million confirmed cases and beds at many intensive care units are running dangerously low.

A grim milestone for California as the state became the first in the country Thursday to surpass 2 million cases of the coronavirus, just six weeks after reaching 1 million cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University and California Governor Newsom.

California became the first state in the nation on Thursday to surpass 2 million cases of the novel coronavirus, according to estimates from Johns Hopkins University.  Estimates from the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center show the state has recorded 2,002,494 cases of COVID-19.

“We are experiencing a modest decline in the rate of growth over the past few days,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom as he addressed the state of the state’s Covid-19 numbers on Wednesday. He then called the 39,069 new cases reported “a modest indication of some possible sign of some good news.” The governor also announced that the 7-day test positivity rate had “declined slightly” from 13.3% to 12.6%

Dave McNary Film ReporterNetflix is delaying the start of production of the Chris Evans-Ryan Gosling thriller “The Gray Man” — which had been scheduled for mid-January — amid concerns about the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in California.Netflix had no comment.

Los Angeles is now the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is the most infected county of the most infected state in the most infected country in the world.

More and more Americans are now receiving the coronavirus vaccine, but confirmed cases and deaths from the disease are horribly shattering records almost daily, across both the nation and in California.

As ICUs across the state were overrun with Covid-19 cases this week, California Governor Gavin Newsom said of the virus, “This is not something to be trifled with. Think about what the January number may look like if we continue [this way].” January’s number may have come a little sooner than the governor expected.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein defended herself Friday against questions about mental decline -- but wouldn’t commit to finishing her term.