Schwarzenegger receives COVID vaccine at Dodger Stadium: 'Come with me if you want to live'

In a viral video, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger received his first COVID-19 dose at Dodger Stadium and borrowed a famous line from "The Terminator" to encourage others to get inoculated.

The 73-year-old posted a video on Twitter of himself getting a shot in his bicep at the drive-through vaccination site on Wednesday.

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"Today was a good day," he wrote. "I have never been happier to wait in a line. If you're eligible, join me and sign up to get your vaccine."

"Put that needle down," he says while receiving the shot - a nod to one of his lesser-known films, "Jingle All The Way," in which he screams at a neighbor eating his wife's cookies to "put that cookie down now!"

In the video, the movie star then thanks the technician who administered the shot.

He goes on to say, "Alright, I just got my vaccine, and I will recommend it to anyone and everyone. Come with me if you want to live."

COVID-19 deaths continued to mount in Los Angeles County Wednesday, with more than 250 fatalities reported, but while new cases numbers, positivity rates and hospitalization figures are trending downward, the public health director said it's too early to proclaim the surge over.

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The persistently high number of daily deaths in recent weeks is a result of the massive spike in hospitalizations the county experienced over the past month.

Estimates released Wednesday by the Department of Health Services showed that since Nov. 3, about 23% of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 have died -- up from 12% in September and October. The average hospital stay for patients has increased to more than nine days, up from less than seven in October.

California reported its second-highest number of COVID-19 deaths Wednesday but also a dip in hospitalizations below 20,000 for the first time since Dec. 27.

The total of 694 new deaths is second to the record 708 reported Jan. 8, according to the state Department of Public Health.

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California this week surpassed 3 million COVID-19 cases since the outbreak began early last year. Nearly 35,000 people have died.

Most of the state was still under stay-at-home orders triggered by a lack of intensive care beds to handle COVID-19 patients. The spike was blamed on people ignoring social distancing and mask-wearing while gathering for the holidays.

Only a couple of weeks ago, it was feared hospitals in hard-hit areas might have to begin rationing care. But statewide hospitalizations have dipped 8.5% over 14 days, with the number of intensive care patients also easing.

In another bit of good news, the statewide positivity for the virus over a seven-day period has fallen below 10% for the first time in weeks - meaning statistically that each infected individual was now infecting less than one other person.

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The Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.