洛杉矶-加利福尼亚致命的圣诞节的标志是请人们远离家庭和室内教堂聚会之外的假日聚会，这可能是制止成年的冠状病毒激增工作，已经使一些医院超出正常能力。
一年来，大流行病至少夺走了23,635人的生命，并破坏了经济，原因是该州大部分地区仍处于不停营业的关闭状态，关闭了无关紧要的业务，因此与朋友和家人的节日聚会可能会很诱人。
但是官员们再次警告说，人们没有戴口罩或没有社交活动的感恩节聚会导致人数激增，并要求人们放弃尤尔和新年庆祝活动。
州长加文·纽瑟姆（Gavin Newsom）表示，医院承受着“前所未有的压力”，如果当前的趋势继续下去，由于该病毒而住院的人数可能在30天内翻一番。
Newsom在周四发布的社交媒体视频中说：“在一月和二月激增的基础上，我们可能还会激增。我担心，但如果我们改变自己的行为，我们就不会成为受害者。”
最近几周，冠状病毒病例，住院和死亡人数呈指数增长，并刷新了新记录。在圣诞节前夕，加利福尼亚州成为美国第一个确认COVID-19病例超过200万的州。
1月25日在加利福尼亚确认了第一例COVID-19病例。11月11日，它花费了292天的时间才达到100万例感染。仅44天之后，这一数字就突破了200万例。
这场危机使该州的医疗系统承受了超出其正常能力的压力，促使医院在帐篷，办公室和礼堂中为患者提供治疗。
截至周四，加利福尼亚州在医院和重症监护室中记录的COVID-19患者人数分别为近19,000和近4,000。
“在大多数医院中，大约一半的床位都充满了COVID患者，而所有的ICU床位都充满了COVID患者，其中三分之二的患者由于肺部炎症而窒息而窒息。病毒”，洛杉矶县卫生服务局局长Christina Ghaly博士说。
“他们令人窒息，以至于无法再呼吸，他们必须让某人放下喉咙以给器官供氧。她说，这些人中有许多人将活不下去，直到2021年。
医院已经雇用了额外的人员，取消了择期手术，并建立了户外帐篷来治疗患者，所有这些都在接下来的几周圣诞节和新年前的病例签约之前增加了容量。
南加州公共卫生联盟的一份声明说：“我们的系统不堪重负，病毒正在四处传播。”该组织包括10个邻近的当地卫生部门，覆盖了该州近60％的人口。“我们知道人们很累，但是公共卫生措施不是敌人，它们是实现更快，更可持续复苏的路线图。”
洛杉矶县占所有冠状病毒病例的三分之一，约占死亡人数的40％，它敦促人们避免参加室内宗教服务，即使他们被允许与社会保持距离。
洛杉矶的罗马大主教管区允许室内提供有限的服务，尽管它还敦促教堂避免使用室内或在线服务。
天使圣母大教堂举行了平安夜弥撒，并计划了室内圣诞节弥撒。
星期四，数十名间隔开的朝拜者摘下面具，只是为了与神职人员保持距离，而卫生官员警告说，唱歌不会增加传播范围。
父亲戴维·加拉多（David Gallardo）在下午的午后时间举行了一本儿童读物《格林奇如何偷走圣诞节》，因为他教导说“黑暗不会赢”，将冠状病毒比作格林奇。
在严峻的警告中，有些希望之光，州长说，这可能表明人们正在关注对社会距离的呼吁。
州官员一直用于计划住院的统计模型预测一个月内将有71,000多名患者，这仍然是目前患者人数的四倍，难以为继，但比几天前的相同模型少了40,000。
传播速度（一个感染者反过来会感染的人数）已经减缓了近两周，而且已经接近使每个感染病毒者的感染率降低的地步。
此外，阳性病例的比率在两周内达到了12.4％的新高，但在过去7天中已开始从峰值13.3％下降到12.6％。周四的七日利率为12.1％。
纽瑟姆（Newsom）敦促加利福尼亚人安全地庆祝假期。
他说：“实际上是拥抱我们直系亲属以外的人。让我们与家庭中的那些人保持亲密关系。”
Festive gatherings with friends and family might be tempting after a year that has seen the pandemic take at least 23,635 lives and ravage the economy as much of the state remained under a stay-at-home order that has closed nonessential businesses.
But officials repeated warnings that Thanksgiving gatherings where people didn't wear masks or observe social distancing have resulted in a surge and begged people to forego Yule and New Year's festivities.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said hospitals are under “unprecedented pressure" and if current trends continue the number of those hospitalized because of the virus could double in 30 days.
“We could have a surge on top of surge on top of a surge in January and February," Newsom said in a social media video posting Thursday. “I fear that but we’re not victims to that if we change our behaviors.”
Coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths have mounted exponentially in recent weeks and are breaking new records. On Christmas Eve, California became the first state in the nation to exceed 2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases.
The first COVID-19 case in California was confirmed Jan. 25. It took 292 days to get to 1 million infections on Nov. 11. Just 44 days later, the number topped 2 million.
The crisis is straining the state’s medical system well beyond its normal capacity, prompting hospitals to treat patients in tents, offices and auditoriums.
As of Thursday, California had record numbers of COVID-19 patients in the hospital and in ICUs, at nearly 19,000 and nearly 4,000, respectively.
“In most hospitals about half of all of the beds are filled with COVID patients and half of all the ICU beds are filled with COVID patients, and two-thirds of these patients are suffocating due to the inflammation that’s in their lungs that’s caused by the virus,” said Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.
“They’re suffocating to the point that they can no longer breathe on their own, and they have to have someone put a tube down their throat, in order to oxygenate their organs. Many of these people will not live to be in 2021,” she said.
Hospitals have hired extra staff, canceled elective surgeries and set up outdoor tents to treat patients, all to boost capacity before the cases contracted over Christmas and New Year’s show up in the next few weeks.
“Our systems are being overwhelmed, and the virus is spreading everywhere,” said a statement from the Public Health Alliance of Southern California, which includes 10 neighboring local health departments covering nearly 60% of the state's population. “We understand that people are tired, but public health measures are not the enemy — they are the roadmap for a faster and more sustainable recovery."
Los Angeles County, which has accounted for a third of all coronavirus cases and nearly 40% of deaths, urged people to avoid attending indoor religious services, even though they are permitted with social distancing requirements.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles was permitting limited indoor services, although it also urged churches to avoid them in favor of outdoor or online services.
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels held Christmas Eve Masses and planned indoor Christmas Day Masses as well.
On Thursday, dozens of physically spaced worshippers removed their masks only to take communion at arms’ length from clergymen, and there was none of the singing that health officials warned could increase the spread.
Father David Gallardo held a copy of the children’s book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” in a midafternoon service as he taught that “darkness doesn’t win,” likening the coronavirus to the Grinch.
Amid the dire warnings were some rays of hope, which the governor said may indicate people are heeding pleas to social distance.
A statistical model that state officials have been using to project hospitalizations predicts more than 71,000 patients in one month’s time — still an unsustainable four times the current number of patients but roughly 40,000 fewer than the same model had been projecting just days ago.
The transmission rate — the number of people that one infected person will in turn infect — has been slowing for nearly two weeks, and it is nearing the point that would bring fewer infections from each person who contracts the virus.
In addition, the rate of positive cases reached a new high of 12.4% over a two-week period, but it was starting to trend downward over the last seven days from a peak of 13.3% to 12.6%. The seven day rate was 12.1% on Thursday.
Newsom urged Californians to celebrate the holidays safely.
“Let’s virtually hug those outside of our immediate family," he said. “Let’s stay close to those folks in our household.”
