President Trump railed against a congressional deal for $600 checks, prompting House Democrats to push for an increase. It now goes to the Senate.
The regional stay-at-home order for Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley is likely to be extended, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in a news conference on Monday.
While the three-week order was set to expire Monday, Newsom said it’s very likely that the order will be extended based on current trends. Intensive care unit bed capacity for these regions has fallen to 0%.
Once Monday’s data is collected, Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s Health and Human Services secretary, will announce projections based on a four-week period on Tuesday, according to Newsom. Stay-at-home orders for the greater Sacramento region will expire on Jan. 1 and a week after for the Bay Area.
California added 33,170 new cases of coronavirus and 64 additional deaths on Monday. Newsom warned that the slightly lower number of deaths is due to a reporting lag over the weekend.
The continued surge of cases and hospitalizations in the Southern California region is challenging the health care system, particularly in Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties, said Newsom. The state is deploying additional staff to Los Angeles County to assist.
The state is also partnering with CVS and Walgreens to provide doses of the Pfizer vaccine to residents and staff in long-term care facilities, Newsom announced. Pharmacy staff will be administering the vaccine by going directly to care facilities.
A total of 261,672 doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been administered as of Dec. 26, Newsom said. By the end of this week, California will have received 1.76 million doses of the vaccine.
The state is also discussing the next phase of vaccine distribution, which includes people over 75 years of age, workers in education and childcare, emergency services, and food and agriculture.
To date, California has a total of 2,155,976 coronavirus cases and 24,284 deaths.
Note: These numbers were released by the California Department of Public Health and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.