Painting a grim picture for the US, the COVID-19 cases in California have zoomed past 600,000 on Friday, according to an NYT tally. California is the first state in the US to mark six lakh cases. The state also has the third-highest COVID-19 death toll in the country with over 10,800 fatalities recorded so far.

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The cases in California started to flare up in July, along with certain other states like Texas, Florida and Arizona. It is the most populous state in the United States. Though the state had reported cases in the early phase, its Governor Gavin Newsom was one of the first to implement a quarantine order which brought down the cases.

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However, once it reopened, there was a sudden and unprecedented surge in cases. Subsequently, authorities issued a mask mandate and had closed down the city’s bars and indoor dining.

In a hopeful sign amid surge, the hospitalisation rates in the state have fallen by 19 percent in the last two weeks. It also had run into a digital glitch with its coronavirus reporting system at the end of July due to which over 300,000 files were left out from the state’s database.