While California no longer leads U.S. in coronavirus cases, state officials warn residents not to let guard down

Jessica Peak and her mother, Olivia Altamirano, visit a Día de los Muertos altar at Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles on Nov. 1, 2020. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

by: Los Angeles Times

Posted: Nov 2, 2020 / 12:51 PM PST

Updated: Nov 2, 2020 / 10:20 PM PST

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

California is no longer the state with the highest number of coronavirus cases, as Texas officially surpassed the overall case count despite having 10 million fewer residents, data compiled by The Times show.

The Lone Star State’s leapfrog illustrates both the magnitude to which COVID-19 cases are surging there, and the extent to which California — so far — has escaped the significant spikes striking many other parts of the United States.

But with Halloween so recently in the rearview mirror and other holidays fast approaching, state and health officials continue to stress that residents and businesses need to do their part to stymie the disease’s spread and ward off any creeping sense of fatigue.

As of Monday morning, Texas had recorded 936,816 total COVID-19 cases — just above California’s 935,534, according to The Times’ coronavirus tracker.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.