What to know
- The previous Monday, Governor Newsom renewed trade restrictions in 30 California counties, including Los Angeles.
- The order again forced the closure of closed gyms, hairdressers, nail salons, places of worship, massage businesses, and tattoo parlors.
- All bars were ordered closed statewide and restaurants throughout California were ordered to cease indoor service.
The coronavirus continued its alarming spread in Los Angeles County on Wednesday, with more than 40 additional deaths and 2,700 new confirmed cases, and health officials said they would dramatically expand access to testing in the most affected communities.
County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said hospitalization numbers also continue to rise, with the county registering the highest number of pandemic patients.
“We are in an alarming and dangerous phase in this pandemic here in Los Angeles County and we are in this place along with 29 other counties across the state,” said Ferrer. “These alarming trends reflect behaviors from three weeks ago, and it will take several weeks to see if our behavior now, including reversing previously open sectors, slows down the spread of the virus. What we do today impacts our lives in the weeks and months ahead. ”
Ferrer announced 44 other deaths from the coronavirus, although three of those deaths were reported Tuesday by health officials in Long Beach and Pasadena. The new deaths increased the county total to 3,932.
It also announced another 2,758 cases, bringing the overall total of cases since the start of the pandemic to 143,009.
More than 1.4 million people have been tested for the virus during the pandemic, with an overall positive test rate of 9%. The moving average in the last seven days was slightly higher, at 9.8%.
Ferrer again noted that younger residents ages 18 to 40 continue to account for a large portion of people who tested positive for the virus and took up space in the hospital, a trend that began with Memorial Day weekend.
“Younger people between the ages of 18 and 40 are also hospitalized at a significantly higher rate than we’ve seen before, and it continues to rise. It is now almost 30%,” said Ferrer.
She said increases in hospitalizations have accelerated dramatically in recent weeks, putting pressure on the medical system and potentially threatening the availability of beds in intensive care units if the trend is not reversed.
“This is also further evidence that we should probably expect to see an increase in deaths in the coming days and weeks,” he said.
How long until coronavirus will cause peak use by hospitals across the country
This interactive chart uses model data provided by the Institute for Health Metrics and Assessment to predict how coronavirus will affect healthcare resources in different states. Maximum use of hospital beds in some states, such as New York, has already passed, while others are weeks away. Most states have enough general hospital and ICU beds to meet demand, according to additional data from The Associated Press.
“What this really means for all of us is that we need to start and continue to take the steps that protect our health care infrastructure so that hospitals can manage the growing number of people who need hospital care,” said Ferrer. This is why it is so important to follow public health directives, such as staying home, avoiding close contact with people you don’t live with, and wearing a covered face all the time when you’re away from home. ”
He noted that the average number of reported cases each day has roughly doubled since early June, providing more evidence of increased community transmission of the virus.
Ferrer and the county’s director of medical services, Dr. Christina Ghaly, said current case numbers continue to highlight the disproportionate impact of the virus on black and brown communities and in low-income areas, leading the county to announce an expansion of evidence in particularly affected cases. communities
Ghaly said that over the next few weeks, the county will expand test sites by 65%, “with the entirety of that expansion focused on high-need areas.” He said new sites would be established in Montebello, South Gate, Azusa, Panorama City, Compton and Downey-Norwalk. Existing sites will also be expanded in Bellflower, Pomona, El Monte and East Los Angeles.
Coronavirus deaths in your city and state, and across the U.S.
These charts use daily data from coronavirus deaths from Johns Hopkins University to show the seven-day moving average of deaths at the city, state, and country levels.
The impact of the coronavirus varies greatly from place to place in the United States.
Health officials have been urgently asking residents to re-adhere more strictly to infection control measures, including social distancing, to avoid meetings with people outside their own homes, and to wear face shields when they are in public.
They declined to identify the exact trigger points that could lead to a return to the original “Safer at Home” order that asked residents to stay home as long as possible, leaving only essential errands and which closed most of the business.
“If we do a very good job of implementing all the tools we have at hand, we can curb the spread again, and that makes it much less likely that we will return to Safer At Home,” said Ferrer.
Mayor Eric Garcetti warned Monday during his COVID-19 update that the city was “on the border” of raising its COVID-19 state of emergency from “orange” to “red”, which would mean that people could only leave their homes for essential goods and trips to work.
On the previous Monday, Governor Gavin Newsom renewed trade restrictions in 30 California counties, including Los Angeles. His order again forced the closure of indoor gyms, beauty salons, nail salons, places of worship, massage businesses, and tattoo parlors. Newsom also ordered the statewide closure of all forced bars and restaurants across California to cease indoor service.
The coronavirus image locally became bleaker on Tuesday, when the county reported a one-day record of 4,244 recently confirmed coronavirus cases and 73 deaths, just three less than the record set in May.
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