COVID-19 hospitalizations, ICU cases on the rise in California

Health officials and Governor Gavin Newsom confirm hospitalizations and ICU cases from COVID-19 are on the rise in the state.

Hospitalizations increased by 32% and ICU cases increased by 19% Thursday, according to Dr. Barbara Ferrer.

"Obviously a great concern for us would be to make sure that our hospital care system remains in tact, that it doesn't get overwhelmed, that it's able to treat both patients who have non-COVID-19 related illnesses as well as all those patients that have Covid-19 related illnesses," said Ferrer.

Ferrer said cases are climbing with people between the ages of 18-40.

"While they may themselves not be at the highest risk for serious disease, what they are at the highest risk for is being spreaders. They can get infected. They may not know they're infected, and they're definitely capable and are in fact spreading COVID-19 to other people," said Ferrer.

Anne Rimoin, a Professor of Epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, said there are a number of reasons for the increase in Covid-19 cases in the state.  

"We see people out and about where they were not before. We also had Memorial Day where people really started getting back together and then of course we had the protests," said Rimoin.  

Rimoin said it's important to practice social distancing and wear a mask.

"Wherever you have mixed messages, politics tends to fill the void, but right now what we need to do is follow the science, and what the science tells us is wearing masks works. We are still far away from having a vaccine. We still do not have therapies that make getting Covid less of a scary situation and so the best thing that we can all do is to do our part, wearing masks works, social distancing works but it means that everybody has to do their part," said Rimoin.

Rimoin has studied other infectious diseases, but said COVID-19 is unlike any other disease.

"This virus is completely new to humanity and we have not seen this virus before. We're looking at what we know about from other coronaviruses like SARS and MERS, but the fact of the matter is these are not the same virus," said Rimoin.

Rimoin said 60-70% of the population could become infected by the virus.

"The reality of it is we're going to see a lot more cases and a lot more deaths if we're not all careful," said Rimoin.

Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state budget emergency Thursday to allow the availability of more funding to fight COVID-19 in the state.