User:Oughtta Be Otters/sandbox/timeline for CA COVID-19

January–February

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in individuals

Several of the earliest confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States were in California. Each individual had recently traveled to Wuhan, China. On January 26, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed two cases in the state in Orange County and Los Angeles County, only the third and fourth confirmed diagnoses on US soil. On January 31, the CDC confirmed a case in Santa Clara County. The fourth confirmed case in California, though also in Santa Clara County on February 2, was unrelated to the previous Santa Clara County case.

There then followed several more notable cases in which the individual with COVID-19 had not traveled overseas. On February 2, the CDC reported only the second identified case of person-to-person transmission on US soil. In San Benito County, both members of a couple were diagnosed with the disease, although only one of them had traveled to Wuhan. Previously, there was only one other such transmission in the US, in Illiniois. On February 6, 57-year-old Patricia Dowd of San Jose, California became the first COVID-19 death in the United States, though she was not identified as such until April. During her autopsy, the coroner suspected COVID-19 and collected swabs and tissue samples. In April, her cause of death was identified as complications triggered by COVID-19. Her case indicated that community transmission had been an undetected factor in the US, most likely since December. When a case of unknown origin was confirmed in a resident of Solano County on February 26, 2020, it was the earliest identified instance of community transmission in the U.S. After the CDC initially declined to test that individual, as the patient had not knowingly had contact with anyone who was infected, the CDC revised its criteria for testing patients for SARS-CoV-2, and on February 28 began sending out the new guidelines for healthcare workers.

Group quarantines based on possible exposures

Many military bases in California also served as quarantine locations for early groups suspected of large-scale exposures. On January 29, the U.S. Department of State evacuated 195 of its employees, their families, and other U.S. citizens from Hubei Province aboard a chartered flight to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County. On February 5, the U.S. evacuated 345 citizens from Hubei Province and took them to two air bases in California, Travis Air Force Base in Solano County and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, San Diego, to be quarantined for 14 days. The evacuees from one more government evacuation flight on February 6 were also taken to bases in Nebraska and Texas. On February 15, the government evacuated 338 U.S. nationals stranded aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess, which had been held in quarantine in Yokohama, Japan. Fourteen of those repatriated people were infected with the virus. Five more nationals who were also reported as being infected were evacuated from the ship the following week, and were quarantined at Travis Air Force Base; several more cases among the cruise ship evacuees were later confirmed.

March

Further information: COVID-19 pandemic on Grand Princess

March 1: NorthBay VacaValley Hospital reported the first two confirmed cases among California health care workers.

March 4: California public health officials in Placer County reported a second confirmed case in an "older adult" resident with underlying health conditions who was aboard the Princess Cruises cruise ship Grand Princess on a cruise to Mexico that departed San Francisco on February 11 and returned on February 21. Although initial reports indicated that the new case had been hospitalized in "critically ill" condition, public health officials in Placer County subsequently reported the new case's death later on the same day. This marked the eleventh death in the United States attributable to coronavirus, the first death in the U.S. attributable to coronavirus outside Washington state, and the first death in California attributable to coronavirus. The source of the new case's infection appears to be the same as that of a resident of Sonoma County who tested positive on March 2 and who was also aboard the cruise ship Grand Princess on the same dates.

On March 4, the governor declared a state of emergency after the first death in California attributable to coronavirus occurred in Placer County. Newsom declared a State of Emergency in California.

On March 19, Newsom expanded the Shelter in Place order to the whole state.

Consequently, Princess Cruises, the owner and operator of the cruise ship Grand Princess, working with the CDC, the state of California, and public health officials in San Francisco, terminated a port call in Ensenada, Mexico planned for March 5 and ordered the cruise ship to return to San Francisco over concerns about the potential for an outbreak of coronavirus aboard the cruise ship. Sixty-two passengers still aboard Grand Princess who may have made contact with the Placer County case that died earlier in the day were quarantined aboard the cruise ship at the request of the CDC. In addition, eleven passengers and ten crew members were exhibiting potential symptoms of coronavirus, and Grand Princess was ordered by the state of California to remain offshore while test kits were being airlifted to the cruise ship.^{[excessive citations]}

A teenager who tested positive and died in Lancaster, part of Los Angeles County, might be the first individual in the U.S. under the age of 18 to die of COVID-19. It was initially reported that the 17-year-old boy was denied health care at an urgent care clinic because he did not have health insurance. He was then transported from that clinic to Antelope Valley Hospital, during which time he went into cardiac arrest. However, it turns out an earlier language barrier resulted in the facts not being fully portrayed in early reporting. The boy did have insurance and contacted Kaiser Permanente who told him to instead go to Antelope Valley Hospital. In transit, the patient coded and six hours of efforts in the emergency room were ultimately not successful in reviving him. Additionally, Los Angeles County Public Health officials later stated they were asking the CDC to investigate the cause of death as "Though early tests indicated a positive result for COVID-19, the case is complex and there may be an alternate explanation for this fatality". On March 24, a spokesperson said that due to patient privacy, they were not willing to give further details.

Meanwhile, medical facilities were trying to scale up for the rapidly increasing number of cases. The Department of Defense deployed the Navy's hospital ship USNS Mercy to California to provide relief to the hospital system by treating non-COVID-19 patients. The ship arrived in Los Angeles on March 27. The Los Angeles Convention Center turned into a field hospital on March 29 to treat COVID-19 patients. On March 21, the Strategic National Stockpile Division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services converted the Santa Clara Convention Center into a Federal Medical Station to receive noncritical patients from local hospitals. Then, on March 22, President Trump announced that he had directed Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide 8 large federal medical stations with 2,000 beds for California.

On March 19, Sacramento County upgraded its stay-at-home directive into an official order that carries legal consequences. Newsom then announced a statewide stay-at-home order.

On March 30, the health officers of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties extended the legal order directing their respective residents to shelter in place to May 3.

By March 31, 2020, positive diagnoses in California numbered just over than 7,000, with 142 deaths attributed to COVID-19.

April

April 1: On April 1, Santa Clara County increased to 956 cases with 32 deaths, and began to report hospital and laboratory testing results, acknowledging that, "because of limited testing capacity through the Public Health Laboratory, the number of cases that we detect through testing represent only a small portion of the total number of likely cases in the county".

Los Angeles County reported 3,518 cases with 65 deaths, San Diego reported 849 cases with 15 deaths, Orange County increased to 606 cases with 10 deaths, San Mateo county to 453 cases with 10 deaths, San Francisco to 434 with 7 deaths, Riverside County to 429 cases with 13 deaths, Alameda County increased to 339 cases with 8 deaths, Sacramento to 314 cases with 9 deaths, San Bernardino to 254 cases with 6 deaths, Contra Costa county to 250 cases, San Joaquin to 173 cases with 9 deaths, Ventura County to 160 cases with 5 deaths, Santa Barbara to 111 cases, Placer County to 90 cases with 2 deaths, San Luis Obispo to 83 cases, Fresno County to 82 cases, Tulare County to 59 cases with 2 deaths, Santa Cruz to 54 cases, Solano County to 54, Yolo County to 28 cases, and Shasta County to 7 cases with 1 death. Members of the California National Guard delivering food to residences in Orcutt, California on April 2

April 2: San Francisco increased to 450 cases with 7 deaths and Los Angeles County reported 4,045 cases with 78 deaths.

April 3: San Francisco county increased to 497 with 7 deaths, Alameda County to 416 cases with 12 deaths, and Los Angeles County to 4,566 and 89 deaths.

April 4: San Francisco county increased to 529 with 8 deaths, Alameda County to 510 cases, and Los Angeles County to 5,277 and 117 deaths.

April 5: San Francisco increased to 568 with 8 deaths, Alameda County to 539 cases, and Los Angeles County to 5,940 and 132 deaths.

April 6: San Francisco county increased to 583 cases with 9 deaths, Alameda County to 557 with 13 deaths, and Los Angeles County to 6,360 and 147 deaths.

April 7: Alameda County increased to 602 cases with 15 deaths, San Francisco to 622 cases with 9 deaths, and Los Angeles County to 6,910 and 169 deaths.

April 8: San Francisco county increased to 676 cases with 10 deaths, Alameda to 640 cases with 16 deaths, and Los Angeles County to 7,530 and 198 deaths.

April 9: San Francisco increased to 724 cases with 10 deaths and Alameda to 681 cases.

April 10: Alameda County increases to 730 cases with 19 deaths.

April 11: Alameda County increases to 770 cases with 20 deaths.

April 14: Los Angeles County is confirmed to have recorded 40 deaths in a period of just one day, setting a single day record. More than 10,000 COVID cases were also confirmed in Los Angeles County alone, with 670 new cases being recorded in just one day as well. Signs at a grocery store in Berkeley, California on April 20 requiring face coverings and banning reusable bags April 16: The state of California recorded 101 deaths within a one-day period, setting a new statewide record for single day COVID-19 deaths.

June[edit]

June 4: Data released on COVID-19 cases in California shows that Latin-American individuals are disproportionally affected by COVID-19. In California, Latin-American individuals represent 54% of total COVID-19 cases but make up only 39% of the population.

June 21: The number of cases exceeded the case numbers of New Jersey.

June 24: A record 7194 cases were announced with 4095 hospitalizations.

June 25: 5349 cases were seen.

June 27: A 19-year-old McDonald's worker in Oakland was assaulted for asking a customer to wear a mask. The man in the drive-thru used racial slurs, threatened to kill her, then broke her arm. An OSHA complaint was filed.

By the end of June, California had 240,195 total confirmed cases and 6,163 COVID-19-related deaths. Thirteen of the state's 58 counties were on the state administration's watch list.

July

Preparing for Fourth of July

July kicked off with increased restrictions in an attempt to prevent the July 4th holiday from spreading COVID-19. Nineteen counties were on the state's watch list and the Governor ordered indoor entertainment venues, such as restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, zoos, and museums, to cease indoor operations, as well as both indoor and outdoor bars. Many beaches closed their parking lots to prevent crowding.

Preparations for reopening

While various counties in the state start experimenting with reopening, the governor stated that any county that is on the watchlist for more than three days will have to close businesses again. So, although Santa Clara County tried reopening facilities like gyms hair salons mid-month, they were closed down again fairly rapidly. Similarly, schools across the state begin announcing plans for the start of the school year, with large districts like Oakland and San Francisco announcing they will be remote only. On July 17, Newsom announced that neither public nor private schools would be allowed to resume in-person learning until their home county had been off the state watchlist for 14 consecutive days. After reopening, teachers will be tested for COVID-19 every-other month, and all students, grades 3-12, will be required to wear masks. Older students refusing to wear masks will not be allowed to attend school.

Essential workers

Newsom released new protections for essential workers, such as people working in agriculture and food service, construction, and retail jobs. Measures include an "Employer Playbook" for setting up safe working environments, and assistance with self-isolating for workers, when necessary. These jobs were disproportionately held by LatinX, Asian, and Black Californians, putting those populations at greater risk of exposure. The governor also ordered a $52 million investment in COVID-19 response in the Central Valley, due to the climbing number of cases in the counties there.

Monthly totals

On July 21, 2020, California became the second state in the nation - after New York - to surpass 400,000 positive diagnoses, and soon surpassed New York's infection numbers entirely. As of July 31, 2020, California reported 499,560 total confirmed cases, and 9,172 deaths attributed to COVID-19. Thirty eight of the state's 58 counties were on the state administration's watch list.