California covid surge - Brexit deal reached - Hospital care racism allegation

While it took California more than nine months to hit 1 million cases, the state added its second million in less than six weeks, according to the San Jose Mercury News — and that’s without data from some counties. The current surge, which comes as almost all of California is under a stay-home order, is believed to be driven largely by people who defied the warnings of public health experts and gathered for Thanksgiving.
...
Local officials have pushed back against pandemic-related restrictions, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-home directive, which Los Angeles county recently asked the California Supreme Court to overturn. That resistance sends a potentially risky message to residents, say some public health experts. The county’s top health official said the surge is “by far” driven by small gatherings among family and friends, followed by religious gatherings and funerals.
...
Now, with soaring cases and more than 18,000 people hospitalized, health officials are bracing for the situation to get even worse as people gather to celebrate Christmas and the New Year. In Los Angeles County, which makes up one-third of all of California’s COVID-19 cases and almost 40 percent of deaths, Wednesday brought the highest number of single-day deaths and hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic: 145 dead and more than 6,000 hospitalized.