When the autumn COVID-19 was raised more than a month ago, its focus was again on Los Angeles County, where essential workers and others living in densely populated neighborhoods made the area particularly vulnerable to the rapid spread of infection.
But now, more suburban counties in Southern California are rapidly gaining traction, fueling Thanksgiving gatherings that have pushed coronavirus cases and hospitalizations to unprecedented levels and left hospital intensive care units to serious levels.
The number of hospital admissions in Covid-19 in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties has doubled since Thanksgiving, according to the Times analysis.
Suburban counties are also following record levels of new daily infections – all significantly worse than summer surges, and in many cases, even worse than LA counties. LA County has seen its recent average daily number nearly triple since its summer peak, while even the highest summer tops include Ventura, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.
Riverside County is in the worst shape compared to its summer maximum, the highest in peak gusts in its average daily number. On Thursday, Riverside reported about 500,000 cases a day in the past week, much worse than the peak of about 00 in August Gust.
On a per capita basis, LA County has prolonged more coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past week than Ventura., San Diego and Orange counties but less than Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
The capacity of the intensive care unit in intensive California continues to decline, with availability in Southern California falling to 7.2% from 7.7% a day earlier.
UCLA Fielding School Public Health Public Medical Specialist and Infectious Diseases Specialist Dr.
“I think the widespread transmission over Thanksgiving holidays is the result of many people – either asymptomatic or prenatal people – spreading the disease not only to themselves, but to their own families,” Kim-Farley said. .
That’s why it’s so important for Californians to follow the stay-at-home order as much as possible in the coming weeks, Kim-Farley said, adding that the spread of highly contagious viruses can be stopped and worse disasters can be prevented as winter begins. Until current trends change, the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicts that California’s accumulated COVID-19 deaths could more than double by the end of winter. More than 20,700 Californians have died from coronavirus infection.
Kim-Furley said it may take even longer for the average daily coronavirus case to start pinching than the surge surge tuna surplus, Kim-Furley said, as more households are now fighting the virus. Over the next week or two, more members of the household will come down with the disease, infected by friends or relatives in the room who left their home during Thanksgiving.
Orange County officials said this week that health care is facing an unprecedented “crisis” as coronavirus patients rush to hospitals. There were more than 1,100 coronavirus-positive patients hospitalized in the county; According to, 265 people were in intensive care The latest available information.
The director of emergency medical services at the county health care agency, Dr. Carl Schultz wrote to hospitals and ambulance and paramedic providers in a memo this week that “at the current deterioration rate, the EMS system could break down unless emergency directives are applied now.” .
Some immediate measures, he said, allow patients to travel long distances in ambulances to take them to hospitals that can accept them, and allow the patient to be taken to another hospital if they wait with the patient for more than an hour. He added that hospitals should also consider activating their growth plans, establishing alternative treatment areas and canceling alternative surgeries.
Dr. Clayton Chow, Orange Range County health officer and director of the health care agency, also encourages residents “who can get services through immediate care, to get services through their primary care physician. [to] Please go ahead and do so, and don’t just show up in the emergency room. ”
Orange County, however, is far from outlets because medical systems across the state are under intense pressure. People in California are testing positive for getting sick and dying from COVID-19 at unprecedented levels. Is the state There are an average of about 29,000 new coronavirus cases a day And about 150 daily deaths in the past week.
The timing and acceleration of the boom indicate that the calls of many neglected officials and experts Travel and gather to say thank you – Given the huge winter holiday season, the possibility of possible cooling is on the rise.
The state has responded by issuing a new stay-at-home order in Southern California and the Central Valley. Some parts of the Gulf region have also voluntarily joined the sanctions, which are now for millions of Californians. The order suspends meals at outdoor restaurants, bans most gatherings, bans hotel use for leisure and tourism, limits most retail capacity to 20%, and hair salons, nail salons, cardrooms, museums, zoos, Aquariums, theaters, wineries and overnight stays at the campground.
Los Angeles County reached another alarming target on Friday, when the number of cases dramatically exceeded 13,507 in a single day – breaking the all-time single-day record, again – which pushed the county’s accumulated cases forward. More than 500,000.
“We’re seeing a number of cases and hospital admissions daily that we haven’t experienced and clearly assumed,” said Barbara Ferrer, LA County’s director of public health. “The bed capacity of our intensive care unit continues to decline. We are on a very dangerous path to witness unprecedented and devastating suffering and death. “
As of Thursday, for the most recent day, for which full data is available, there were 8,850 CIVID-19 patients admitted to the county county, including 856 in the ICU – both records.
The number of people admitted to the hospital in LA County with coronavirus infection has doubled since Thanksgiving a month ago and quadrupled from there to 942.
“The best thing we can do right now is to stay in our homes and away from people whenever possible,” Ferrer said during a briefing on Friday.
Officials fear the situation will only get worse as more people exposed during the Thanksgiving holiday could get sick. It is still hoped that the new living-order will make a difference, but it will take weeks before people know whether they are following the rules and if the effects become apparent.
“We can’t undo what has already been done, and collectively, we’re going to pay a very high price for all the actions we’ve been doing in the past,” Ferrer said.
At the moment, she added, “it’s not a question if we see a big increase in hospital admissions and deaths”, but how serious the numbers will be is a question.
Officials have always said that an increasing number of infections lead to hospitalization after two-three weeks. Two weeks ago, LA County reported an average of 1,000 new coronavirus cases per day. That wave stimulates the current record-high hospital admissions numbers.
If the proportions should be the same, the recent average castle load of 13,500 new infections would trigger a tidal wave two weeks from now – possibly doubling the number of people in LA County hospitals to 7,300, including about 1,700 in intensive care.
According to Ferrer, all county hospitals have only about 2,100 ICU adult beds.
“We are at a very critical stage of our epidemic due to the fact that we have come close to overcrowding our ICU beds,” Kim-Farley said. “And that is why it is imperative for everyone to follow the guidelines and directions of the public health authorities, so that we do not have a situation where a loved one dies from covid or, in this case, other serious illnesses,” he said. ”
