California is facing a massive surge in coronavirus cases, despite adopting strict policies like mask and vaccine mandates, as the omicron variant continues to spread.
San Diego County, for example, reported the highest single-day case count in the pandemic thus far, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune:
San Diego County reported a total of 5,976 new coronavirus cases Thursday, setting a new single-day record, according to county records.
The previous single-day record was set on Jan. 7, when the county health department reported 4,550 new cases.
Besting the previous record by nearly 1,500 cases on the eve of New Year’s Eve clearly unsettled those in charge of protecting the public health.
Dr. Cameron Kaiser, San Diego’s deputy public health officer, said in a statement released Thursday afternoon to tamp down plans for ringing in the new year.
Los Angeles County reported more than 20,000 new cases on Thursday, nearly the highest single-day total of the pandemic, according to the Los Angeles Times:
The long-feared winter coronavirus wave reached new heights Thursday as Los Angeles County reported more than 20,000 new cases, fueled in part by the highly transmissible Omicron variant that is washing over the region.
Overall, California’s reported average daily coronavirus caseload has more than quadrupled in the last two weeks — an astonishing rise that has pushed infection levels significantly higher than at any point during the summer surge.
“We are, in fact, experiencing the worst of a surge at the moment with the rising number of cases,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told reporters.
Thursday’s total in L.A. County, 20,198, is one of the highest in the pandemic. Over the last two days, the nation’s most populous county has announced nearly 37,000 new cases.
And the San Jose Mercury News reported that California is experiencing the fastest rate of spread in the pandemic, with even highly-vaccinated areas like Contra Costa County experiencing a 76% rise in the past two weeks.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom led the nation’s Democrat-run state in imposing vaccine mandates on public employees and health care workers, and he re-imposed a statewide mask mandate earlier this month, with the exception of the San Francisco Bay Area, due to its high level of vaccination.
South Africa, the country that first identified the omicron variant, reported this week that its wave had passed rather quickly, with low levels of hospitalizations. Though the country had adopted tight restrictions, enforced by the military, early in the pandemic, it did not do so during the omicron wave due to the relatively mild symptoms experienced by most of the infected.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.