Good morning.

I wish I could start this holiday season on a brighter note.

But the reality is that California, for all the sunshine and warmth, is in the midst of one of its darkest winters.

Hospitalizations and deaths have continued to soar as the nation’s most populous state has emerged as the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic — and they don’t appear to be slowing down.

[Track coronavirus cases, deaths and hospitalizations in California.]

With just 2.5 percent of the state’s overall intensive care capacity available, officials have been rushing to get more so-called “field hospitals,” or alternative care sites, up and running. And discussions are underway about how to implement the state’s plans to ration care, which were put together earlier this year, as New York saw its hospitals overwhelmed with patients.

While Gov. Gavin Newsom didn’t officially extend what were supposed to be three-week stay-at-home orders affecting most of the state’s 40 million residents, he said Monday that it was “self-evident,” the orders would need to be in effect well into January, in light of projections that more than 90,000 people in California could be hospitalized with the virus in coming weeks.