The number of homicide victims in California jumped 27% from 2019 to 2020, to about 2,300, marking the largest year-over-year increase in three decades, according to preliminary death certificate data from the California Department of Public Health.
The increase in deadly violence played out across large swaths of the state, urban and rural, and was keenly felt in the San Francisco Bay Area. Among California’s 10 most populous counties, the sharpest increases were reported in Alameda County, where homicides rose 57%, followed by Fresno (44%), Sacramento (36%) and Los Angeles (32%).
- Winston Gieseke, USA TODAY Network
The United States will send at least 80 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to other countries by the end of June, Biden said Monday.
Twenty million doses are from Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, Biden said. He previously agreed to share up to 60 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine, which has not been authorized for emergency use in the U.S by the Food and Drug Administration.
"We're taking another step to help the world," Biden said. "It's the right thing to do. It's the smart thing to do."
The announcements come as the U.S. and other developed nations face increasing criticism for monopolizing vaccines while the developing world struggles. Demand in the U.S. has stalled in recent weeks, and vaccine "hesitancy" is blamed for a steady decline in jabs.
Biden said Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus coordinator, will lead the global vaccination effort. The U.S. will work with COVAX, a worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to coronavirus vaccines.
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