Southern California is a main driver of state’s record COVID-19 deaths, with no signs of a letup

But COVID-19 is now so widespread that the overall chance of getting infected, and therefore being one of the unlucky 12% to need hospitalization, is now worse than ever. … “This is the surge that we all expected when we first got wind of this thing in the spring,” said Dr. Shruti Gohil, associate medical director of epidemiology and infection prevention at UC Irvine.