California is changing its coronavirus testing strategy after it broke its own record on Wednesday for new COVID-19 infections, reporting a staggering 11,126 confirmed cases.
The testing strategy will again focus on vulnerable patients and those most at risk of contracting the virus, which has infected more than 3 million Americans, according to NBC News.
The updated strategy is similar to the one that existed before April, when public health officials opened the tests to everyone, including people without symptoms.
But as California sinks deeper into the pandemic, public health officials are trying to free up space in the health system for patients who will require the most care. Specific tests could ease some of the supply chain shortage that has caused test bottlenecks and forced many patients to wait up to a week for results.
“We all know that testing in California is a vital piece of our response,” California Secretary of Health and Human Services Mark Ghaly said Tuesday.
Hospitalizations also increased, with at least 6,786 residents being treated for COVID-19, and more than 1,900 of them in intensive care units, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Los Angeles County, the state’s most populous, also reported spikes in confirmed coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. The county added 4,244 new cases Tuesday and another 2,758 in the past 24 hours. It also recorded a new three-day average of more than 2,000 hospitalizations per day.
The county accounts for the majority of infections statewide with over 140,600 cases total. The state total is more than 347,000 confirmed cases and 7,227 deaths as of Tuesday.
“We are in an alarming and dangerous phase,” Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County Director of Public Health, said Wednesday during a daily press conference.
In April, California eased the restrictions and focused on evaluating as many people as possible, with or without symptoms. According to new guidelines announced this week, priority will be given to testing those already hospitalized with symptoms of COVID-19 and their close contacts.
The second priority will be for anyone with symptoms and asymptomatic individuals living or working in collective care settings, healthcare professionals, caregivers, jail and prison workers, law enforcement and public safety employees, and inpatients. Or discharged from hospitals.
Third and fourth priority will be given to essential workers who regularly interact with the public and anyone who believes they are at risk of contracting coronavirus.
“The tests help us understand how COVID-19 moves through our communities so that we can identify the areas where transmission occurs,” Ghaly said Tuesday. “Today we are redoubling our commitment to ensuring testing remains a priority for California.”
The state is asking health insurance providers to cover the cost of the tests, about $ 100 per test, for all residents.
The state also hopes to increase our testing capacity from approximately 2,000 a day at the start of the pandemic to at least 200,000 a day. Currently, the state is averaging about 105,000 tests per day, according to Ghaly.
“We all know that testing in California is a vital part of our response not only to focus on caring for patients with symptoms … but also to understand transmission patterns across the state,” he said.
Test sites will be added in the hardest hit communities, including several in southern California, Los Angeles County public health officials said.
The increase in California cases comes when other coronavirus hotspots, including Florida, Arizona and Texas, are waging their own battles against a surge in infections. Meanwhile, old hot spots are starting to see improvements. For the first time since the pandemic began, New York City did not report new coronavirus-related deaths earlier this week.
California Governor Gavin Newsom also withdrew some of the reopening guidelines introduced in early summer. It ordered 30 counties, including Los Angeles and Orange, to close gyms, bars, lounges, and nonessential offices. The directive was meant to keep people outdoors, where the coronavirus is less likely to spread, Ghaly later explained.
Residents are still instructed to wear masks in public, continue to practice social distancing, and limit interactions with people outside the home.
“We know that widespread mixing outside of your home, movement where you mix with others, any of those events and activities create an opportunity for broadcast,” said Ghaly. “In general, industries where that happens to prolonged degrees, where there is the possibility of a lack of monitoring of some of our guidelines and guidance on how industries open, can and have led to outbreaks in some of those settings.
In downtown Los Angeles, more than 300 coronavirus infections were reported over the weekend at the Los Angeles clothing factory, where workers made clothing and face masks. The public health department ordered the store to be closed, affecting about 2,000 employees, NBC Los Angeles reported.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Ferrer noted that the most difficult populations in Los Angeles are communities of color. Latinos are more than twice as likely as white people to get and die from the coronavirus, he said. Blacks are 25 percent more likely to be infected than whites and twice as likely to die.
“It is a heartbreaking and heartbreaking reality that blacks and Latinos are the most affected,” he said. “Essential workers cannot stay home.”
Despite the increase in hospitalizations and confirmed cases, some Californians continue to press against coronavirus restrictions.
A barber shop in Burbank promised on Tuesday to remain open even when its competitors closed their doors.
“We were closed for three months,” Steve Kharazian, owner of Fades and Blades Barbershop, told NBC Los Angeles. “We are all for the safety of our people, but hair salons and salons are much safer than any other industry.”
Kharazian posted an angry protest on Instagram earlier in the week, declaring that “barber lives matter.”
“We are going to stay open,” he said.
But stylist Ciara Dungan, based in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, said she hopes the new directives will help people better meet the guidelines.
“I just hope people take it seriously,” he told Nightly News. “I really don’t know what it will take for people to understand.
Meanwhile, Orange County officials recently voted to allow in-person learning to resume for the upcoming school year. Masks and social distancing will not be required, even as the Los Angeles and San Diego Unified School Districts, which line Orange County on both sides, voted to virtually start the school year. Students in those districts will only return to the classroom when public conditions allow.
