For months, California did many of the right things to avoid a catastrophic surge from the pandemic. Now infections have been racing out of control for weeks, and California has routinely set new records for infections and deaths. On Friday, the number of confirmed U.S. coronavirus cases surpassed 20 million, nearly twice as many as the No. In California, the southern half of the state has seen the worst effects, from the agricultural San Joaquin Valley to the Mexico border. On Thursday, the total number of California deaths surpassed 25,000, joining only New York and Texas at that milestone.
