New York Witnesses Surge In COVID-19 Cases, While California Has Already 'Flattened The Curve'

New York City continues to surge past its already drastic death toll of more than 7,000 people and has crossed 100,000 cases testing positive for COVID-19, as it continues to be the epicenter of the disaster in the U.S. But even as the U.S. remains on the top of the list of countries with the highest number of cases, its states like California have already minimized the damage and are ready to “bend the curve” of the pandemic.

California is projected to reach its peak on Wednesday, with approximately 66 deaths, according to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), while New York recorded nearly 800 deaths on April 8. The major difference between the two states is because of the quick pace at which the “shelter-in-place” orders were employed in California by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“One thing that I think is known is that the earlier you’re able to act decisively to stop rise in infectious, the more that that will pay off in terms of higher impact in flattening the curve,” said Salomon, director of the Prevention Policy Modeling Lab at Stanford Medicine and professor of medicine at Stanford University.

"I think the move to make these decisions quickly, to avoid further delays once the extent of spread and its rise became clear, have been absolutely vital and deserve a lot of the credit for us being at a place right now that’s much better than where we might have been had the epidemic continued to spread," he added.

At the time, Newsom was putting the lockdown measures in place, he had urged the population to adhere to them in order to “truly bend the curve to reduce the need to surge." "To reduce the need to have to go out and begin to cobble all those assets together — though I want you to know we’re doing just that. I can assure you home isolation is not my preferred choice. I know it’s not yours. But, it’s a necessary one,” said Newsom.

California state’s most populated city, Los Angeles has also left no stone unturned in following the strict lockdown measures as it recently extended its "Safer At Home" order to May 15.

“We need to protect every worker on the front lines of this crisis,” Garcetti said in a statement. “Each one of us is a first responder in this emergency. Every employer should keep employees safe, and so should Angelenos patronizing these businesses. Cover up. Keep your distance. Save lives. It’s that simple.”