The number of coronavirus cases and related deaths in Los Angeles County has been steadily rising for the first two days of the three-day holiday weekend, with health officials reporting about 30,000 cases Saturday.
Officials have reported a combined 29,423 new coronavirus cases on Christmas Day and Saturday. Friday’s case number was delayed by one day due to disruption of Internet service in the LA area by Spectrum, officials said.
Local health agencies also recorded 136 deaths in a two-day period. The county has an average of 14,000 new coronavirus cases per day in the past week and 88 Covid-19 deaths per day.
Los Angeles County now has more than 707,000 coronavirus cases and more than 9,440 deaths.
Hospitals throughout the county are overflowing. Some are running dangerously low on their oxygen supply, critical to the treatment of critically ill COVID-19 patients who have begun to suffocate due to their virus-infected lungs. Emergency rooms are so crowded that patients in ambulances have to wait up to eight hours to be discharged or sometimes sent to far-flung hospitals.
Barbara Ferrer, the county’s director of public health, said in a statement that “people mixing with others in their homes have led to the most dangerous level of the Covid-19 epidemic in L.A. County.” “The overcrowded hospitals are a sad proof of this reality. To honor the safety of our health care workers and your family and friends, please delay travel plans and only reunite with members of our household. These actions save lives. ”
In Los Angeles County, Covid-19 hospitalized 6,815, three times more than Thanksgiving figures, while 1,951 were hospitalized. The ICU in Los Angeles County is essentially full, and on Christmas day, 1,368 people with COVID-19 were in the ICU, compared to 484 in the ICU when the comparative figure for Thanksgiving was almost three times that.
An increase in cases can be seen across the region.
On Saturday, Orange County also broke the record for the highest number of new coronavirus cases in a single day, with 5,953 cases, breaking the last record on December 20, when 4,606 cases were reported. Orange County has reported about 500,500,000 new coronavirus cases in a single day in the past week.
Orange County also had the highest number of Covid-19 deaths recorded on Saturday in a single day, with 63 new deaths, breaking the record set last September 29, when 33 deaths were reported. Orange County has averaged 12 deaths a day in the past week.
Collectively, 2.1 million cases of coronavirus have been reported in California, and on Saturday, it advanced another serious target: more than 3,000,000 deaths. At least 234 deaths were reported across the state, and at least 24,200 deaths were reported, according to the Times Independent County-by-County.
If current trends continue, the University of Washington’s Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicts a total of more than 70,000 deaths in California by April 1, with an additional 15,000 deaths if the order is relaxed, while Virtually 10,000 fewer people would die each time wearing a mask outside the home.
With Christmas coming to an end, and many people rejecting requests from authorities to leave the holiday gathering, Los Angeles County health officials are now urging people who travel during the holidays to see if they develop signs of illness. Keep yourself isolated for 10 days. Keep children separate, with groceries and restaurant food to prevent the spread of the virus in the community.
“We’re really working on dealing with the fact that we think a lot of travel happens,” Ferrer said the day before Christmas. “And that means when people come back, we need to self-quarantine for those 10 days.”
