Why the Most Populous California is Safer Than NY?

The number of Coronavirus cases has crossed more than Four Lakh in the United States. New York has become the Epicenter of the contagious virus with around 35-40% of the total cases in the country. This has surprised everyone because the most populous state in the US, California is relatively safer in this Pandemic.

Interestingly, the first possible case of community transmission in the US was reported in California on February 26th; the state reported its first death on March 4th. New York lagged by days, reporting its first community transmission case on March 3rd and first death on March 14th.

After a month, California has been relatively safe with more than 17,000 cases and about 450 deaths — while New York state has more than 140,000 cases and about 5,500 deaths. The reason may be proactive leadership in California. The state administration enforced Social Distancing very early and did not ease it despite the huge financial losses.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed already declared a local state of emergency on February 25th while New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted he was “encouraging New Yorkers to go on with your lives” on March 2nd. That very much speaks what went wrong.

Even though California is the most populous state in the US, New York is more densely populated which made community transmission easy. Some Epidemiologists say that New York cases are more because the state has done more tests when compared to California.