California Tops Ten-Thousand COVID-19 Deaths

(AP) – California has surpassed 10,000 deaths from the coronavirus, making it the U.S. state with the third-highest deaths since the start of the pandemic. The figure was reported Friday by Johns Hopkins University, with 10,024 dead since the outbreak began in California in February. New York has the highest number of deaths in the U.S. at more than 32,000, followed by New Jersey with nearly 16,000. Nearly half of California’s deaths are in hard-hit Los Angeles County, where more than 4,800 of its 10 million residents have died. California is the nation’s most populous state with 40 million people. Gov. Gavin Newsom was the first in the nation to issue a stay-home order in mid-March, but the virus began to surge after the Memorial Day holiday.