(CNN) — Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti issued a grim warning about the coronavirus pandemic in California cities and across the country.
“No matter where they are, this will come,” Garcetti said in an online statement Thursday. “Everybody is ‘the worst city’ right now. Take all the steps you can to make sure people are home.
California has reported 3,006 cases, the highest number behind the nation’s hardest-hit states: New York, New Jersey and Washington. At least 65 Californians have died.
They are not numbers. They are neighbours. They are not statistics, ”Garcetti said. “These are the loved ones who are in our families and our communities and our workplaces.”
At least 21 of the state’s deaths are from Los Angeles County, which has reported more than 1,200 cases. The county saw a big jump in cases almost overnight, an increase of more than 50% in one day, according to the mayor.
If that rate of cases continues, in six days they will have the same number of cases as New York City, the mayor said.
“A reporter asked me that Los Angeles today is the next New York,” Garcetti said. “And I said for sure in the same way that New York is now the next Italy, and Italy was the next Iran and Iran was the next China, and no matter where you live, you will be next.”
A similar warning in San Francisco
In Northern California, San Francisco Mayor London Breed had similar words for residents.
She warned that if people ignored the lockdown orders, the city could see an increase in coronavirus cases, similar to New York.
“If people who are on the streets continue to gather with each other, continue to interact with each other, which increases the spread of this virus, we will not have enough beds, enough intensive care units, enough ventilators to support the people we know. they will need, ”Breed told a news conference earlier this week.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has repeatedly said that lives in his own city can be lost due to a lack of medical supplies, such as ventilators.
Breed estimated that San Francisco would need at least 1,500 more ventilators and 5,000 more hospital beds to keep up with the increase in patient numbers.
“It’s not even a question of whether we will need more,” said Breed.
San Francisco’s director of Public Health, Dr. Grant Colfax, echoed those concerns, noting that this was why it was so important for residents to stay home.
“It is plausible that despite all these efforts we could have a scenario similar to the one unfolding in New York today,” he said. “If that happens, our capacity, our capacity to increase will be far exceeded.”
California numbers are doubling
There was a similar bleak image across the state.
California’s case count doubles every three to four days, comparable to New York’s case rate, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency.
“We originally thought it would double every six to seven days and we see cases doubling every three to four days,” Ghaly.
The state can expect an increase in cases and patients in about a week or two, Ghaly said.
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