Santa Clara County Reports 600 New Coronavirus Cases, 14 Deaths

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — The Santa Clara County Public Health Department reported 600 additional coronavirus cases Tuesday.

The latest report brings the countywide case count to 99,174.

The county reported 14 additional coronavirus-related fatalities Tuesday, bringing its COVID-19 death toll to 1,278.

There were 523 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the county as of Tuesday of which 131 were being treated in intensive care units.

Elsewhere around the Bay Area and beyond, the global confirmed coronavirus case count on Tuesday topped 100 million, CNN reports.

The grim COVID-19 milestone is the second the world has hit in less than two weeks. On Jan. 15 the global coronavirus death toll surpassed two million according to the report, which cites data from Johns Hopkins University.

Amid the proliferation of more infectious coronavirus variants, several countries in Europe have issued enhanced requirements and recommendations for facial coverings, NPR reports.

Germany has introduced a measure requiring medical-grade masks be used in stores and on public transit according to the report.

Harvard Medical School's Dr. Abraar Karan said in an interview with CNN that if everyone in the United States wore N95 or equivalent masks for four weeks the coronavirus crisis would be over.

California plans to launch a coronavirus vaccination information and data hub in the coming weeks that will allow state residents to sign up for alerts when they are eligible to receive a vaccine, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday.

The vaccination hub, dubbed My Turn, uses technology from Salesforce and Skedulo and is currently being piloted in Los Angeles and San Diego counties, Newsom said, with the intent of making it available statewide by February.

Residents will be able to use My Turn to sign up for text or email notifications when they can finally receive a vaccine as well as information on where vaccines are available, how many state residents have already been vaccinated and the tiers for vaccine access.

Newsom touted My Turn as "the most robust" vaccination information system in the country, but noted that getting it available to all Californians will take a few weeks to ensure a smooth roll out.

"We just want to make sure that we don't run this thing into the ground and have a system that shuts down," Newsom said Monday during a briefing on the pandemic.

Around 130,000 state residents are being vaccinated each day as of Jan. 15, according to the California Department of Public Health. As of Jan. 17, roughly 3.2 million vaccine doses have been shipped to local health departments and multi-county health care systems.

In addition to launching My Turn, Newsom announced that the state will change its vaccine distribution hierarchy to an age-based system, once all health care workers, people over age 65, food and agriculture workers, teachers and school staff members are vaccinated.

Don't miss updates about the coronavirus in California as they are announced. Sign up for Patch news alerts and newsletters

There have been 3,223,383 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 37,822 coronavirus-related deaths in California as of Tuesday afternoon according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The United States had 25,424,174 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 424,690 coronavirus-related fatalities as of Tuesday afternoon.

There have been 100,201,258 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,154,530 coronavirus-related deaths reported globally as of Tuesday afternoon.

— Bay City News contributed to this report