SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KRON) – Hospitalization rates and the number of patients in intensive care for COVID-19 continue to climb in California.
Governor Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday the coronavirus has now hospitalized 1,617 people with 657 of them in intensive care units.
Health officials suspecting thousands more currently hospitalized could also have the virus as the state awaits the results of 57,400 tests.
Newsom’s administration anticipates hospitals will surge by mid-May.
The governor stunned Tuesday that 25,000 former, future and part-time healthcare workers already signed up to join the state’s ‘health corps’ on its first day.
“A remarkable, remarkable spirit, and a remarkable number of people willing to step up and step in,” Newsom said.
Also stepping up on the frontlines of COVID-19, grocery store workers.
Newsom says he’s working with grocers and unions on getting them more protections.
“We need to do more for them, and we haven’t done as much to provide them the kind of breaks they need, to wash their hands, to provide them the kind of protective gear to make sure they’re safe and healthy,” Newsom said.
California’s mandatory stay-at-home order has pushed 1.6 million residents to file for unemployment as of Tuesday while millions of California kids remain out of school.
What the plan is and if students will return for the academic year, Governor Newsom says a decision is coming soon.
“In my belief they will not, but let me announce formally what the Superintendent of public education and the superintendents believe in the next day or two,” Newsom said.
The state legislative session is also in limbo.
Lawmakers remain on recess but leaders say this situation and many others across California are fluid.
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