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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he turned down a position in President-elect Joe Biden's administration, opting to stay in his city as the COVID-19 crisis worsens, with his 9-year-old daughter testing positive for the disease.
"At this point, when so many lives are on the line, there is nothing more important to me, no task more urgent, than being here as your mayor during the worst emergency that our city has ever faced," Garcetti said during a news conference on Thursday.
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"As the administration reached out to me about serving," he said, "I let them know early this week that my city needs me now, and that I want to be here, and that I need to be here."
Garcetti's appointment to a Biden administration post wouldn't have come without controversy.
Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrated for nearly a month outside the mayor's home over his handling of issues such as homelessness and police oversight, demanding that his name be dropped from consideration.
Garcetti, who was co-chair of Biden’s presidential campaign, was reportedly being considered for the position of either transportation secretary or environmental envoy within the incoming administration. On Tuesday, however, Biden announced he had selected former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg to head the Transportation Department.
Garcetti remains one of four co-chairs on Biden's inaugural committee, alongside Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana.
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Garcetti's state is grappling with staggering COVID-19 infection rates. On Thursday, the state reported 52,000 new cases in a single day — equal to what the entire U.S. was averaging in mid-October — and a one-day record of 379 deaths. More than 16,000 people are in the hospital with the coronavirus across the state, more than triple the number a month ago.
An estimated one in 80 people in Los Angeles County have tested positive for the virus -- more than 10 times the rate in late September when scientists estimated that one in 880 residents had the virus.
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Intensive care unit capacity is at less than 1% in many California counties, and morgue space is also running out, in what is increasingly resembling the disaster last spring in New York City.
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