The Latest: California hits record 585 virus deaths in 1 day

LOS ANGELES — California started the new year by reporting a record 585 coronavirus deaths in a single day.

The state Department of Public Health said Friday there were more than than 47,000 new confirmed cases reported, bringing the total to more than 2.29 million.

Hospitals in the state ended the year on “the brink of catastrophe,” a health official said as the pandemic pushed deaths and sickness to staggering levels and some medical centers scrambled to provide oxygen for the critically ill.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Friday that California would begin collaborating with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to evaluate and upgrade outdated oxygen delivery systems at six Los Angeles area hospitals.

The collaboration comes as older hospitals are having difficulty maintaining oxygen pressure in aging infrastructure and some were scrambling to locate additional oxygen tanks for discharged patients to take home.

California this week became the third state to exceed 25,000 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— In California, coronavirus infections are racing out of control.

— Only about half of the Americans who volunteered to test COVID-19 vaccines got the real thing. Now experts debate whether all volunteers should.

— Israel says it has vaccinated 1 million peopl e against COVID-19 as it rolls out one of the world’s earliest and most rapid inoculation campaigns.

— Police in Wisconsin say they’ve arrested a hospital employee suspected of intentionally spoiling COVID-19 vaccines.

— Authorities in Belgium say a 27th elderly person has died in an outbreak at a nursing home from a super-spreading St. Nick party last month.

— Turkey’s health minister says the country has identified 15 people who carry a...