Watch: Gov. Gavin Newsom gives coronavirus update

Gov. Gavin Newsom provided an update Thursday to California’s progress with the COVID-19 outbreak. You can watch the a recording of the livestream by clicking on the video below:

Newsom said on Wednesday the state would invest $1.4 billion to obtain 200 million masks a month for California so health care workers, grocery store employees and other essential personnel are more protected against the virus. He also announced on Monday that California would loan 500 ventilators to states that needed them more urgently.

The Democratic governor also said the state is slowly collecting data across California on the racial breakdown of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Newsom said that the state has racial and ethnic identification for 37 percent of 16,957 people who have tested positive for the new coronavirus.

Of those cases, the California Department of Public Health reported that whites represent 37 percent of confirmed cases; Latinos, 30 percent; Asians, 14 percent; other, 9 percent; blacks, 6 percent; multiracial, 2.5 percent; 1.6 percent native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders; and 0.2 percent, American Indians or Alaska Natives. The agency did not explain why the numbers add up to slightly more than 100 percent.

Nationally, reports of the coronavirus hitting African Americans harder has generated greater discussion of disparity in the health care system.

In terms of COVID-19 deaths, the state has numbers on 39 percent of those who have died, and 43 percent have been white, 29 percent Latino, 16 percent Asian, 5 percent other, 3 percent black, 2 percent multiracial, 1 percent Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander and 0.6 percent American Indian or Alaska Native.

Newsom said the data so far line up with the state’s demographic breakdown.

This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 11:34 AM with the headline "Watch: Gov. Gavin Newsom gives coronavirus update."