Los Angeles County officials have announced another record day among patients hospitalized for the coronavirus.
As of Monday, 2,232 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms, the highest number of a single day reported and the sixth consecutive day that hospitalizations exceeded 2,100. On Sunday, 2,216 patients were reported, the first time hospitalizations exceeded 2,200. Of those currently hospitalized, 26% are in intensive care.
Public health officials also reported 3,160 new cases and nine additional coronavirus-related deaths.
More than 155,000 people have been infected in the county since the pandemic began, and authorities said that as of July 9, health workers and first responders accounted for 10,450 cases. That number is more than 1,000 from the previous week, the largest increase among those professions.
Sixty-three health workers have died from COVID-19, director of public health Barbara Ferrer said Monday. Nurses account for 49% of those deaths, and of those who have died of coronavirus-related infections, nurses in skilled nursing facilities account for 71%.
There have also been 812 cases of COVID-19 among pregnant women, as of July 17, health officials said. Of them, 79% were symptomatic, and there has been one death among pregnant women, a number that was first reported weeks ago. No newborn has tested positive for the virus.
Like all Latino residents, Latino pregnant women have been disproportionately affected by the virus, accounting for 3 out of 4 cases of pregnant women who have contracted the virus, the data shows.
“This research is a reflection of what the Latinx community has experienced since the pandemic began,” said Ferrer.
Many Latino residents are essential workers, Ferrer said, and can carry the infection to their pregnant partners. Of the 3,820 people who died where race and ethnicity were identified, authorities said 47% were Latinas.
Officials are currently responding to more than 1,000 outbreaks of the virus, Ferrer said.
Although contact tracking remains a key tool in fighting the spread of the disease, Ferrer said his methods cannot be fully trusted.
While the county has added more contact trackers, totaling more than 2,500, tracking does not occur in public spaces and is as effective as contacted persons allow. For example, of the approximately 57,000 people contacted who completed a one-hour phone interview with a contact tracker, only 57% provided information about their close contacts and employers. Many cited fears that such information would affect their home, employment status, or relationships.
“We have a limited capacity to compel people to share important information,” said Ferrer.
The disease has become more prevalent in the relatively young, with approximately 53% of the latest infections in people younger than 41, and 52% of the cases to date in the county in that age group. Supervisor Kathryn Barger said the increase explains the activity seen during the July 4 weekend and in the weeks leading up to it.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti repeated a dire warning over the weekend that the city is about to close entirely again. The mayor blamed a rapid reopening of the economy as people become less vigilant about following public health guidance for the increase in the number of infections.
The city is in orange-level threat territory, the second-highest of the color-coded categories it unveiled in early July. But if the situation escalates, for example, if the hospital’s capacity is limited, the threat assessment could turn red, leading to a complete shutdown, Garcetti said.
“I am behind the decisions we make [to reopen]”Barger said in response to Garcetti’s comments.” I think it is unfortunate for us to debate what we should have done. We have to look forward. “
Among a worrying increase in the number of coronavirus cases in California, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a positive news on Monday: The rate of positive infections in the past 14 days has remained stable, while the seven-day average has dropped. slightly.
Newsom reported that the statewide positivity rate has held steady at 7.4% for the past two weeks and that the one-week average for positive infections decreased from 7.7% to 7.2%.
However, a more worrying number is the hospitalization rate, which has increased by 16% in the last 14 days. Still, that number is a smaller overall increase compared to previous weeks.
But, Newsom warned, the numbers apply to the state as a whole, which has confirmed more than 337,000 infections and 7,716 coronavirus-related deaths. Several counties are still experiencing an increase in infections.
“County by county, things look very different than they are across the state,” said the governor. “We are in the middle of this pandemic, it will not disappear any time soon.”
Los Angeles is one of 33 counties that the state is monitoring for an increase in cases and hospitalizations.
While some counties, like San Francisco, have moved and are on the state’s watch list for the past few weeks, Los Angeles County has remained for most of a month.
Reasons for monitoring include the county’s overall infection numbers. According to state guidelines, counties must have no more than 100 infections per 100,000 residents during a 14-day period in order to relax public health restrictions. According to public health data, the infection rate for Los Angeles County is 318.9 per 100,000 residents.
The county is also above the 8% positivity rate the state has requested.
On Sunday, authorities reported a record number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals: 2,216. Of these, 26% were in intensive care and 19% used ventilators. It was the fifth day in a row that the county had served more than 2,100 patients in hospitals and on the first day that number exceeded 2,200.
Despite the increase, the county is still in good shape with the number of hospital beds available, authorities said.
More than 1.5 million county residents have been screened for the virus, and 10% have tested positive as of Sunday, the data shows. The seven-day average for positive infections is 8.8%.
An experimental trial of vaccines in the United States is scheduled to begin soon. Approximately 30,000 people, including Californians, will enroll.
Scientists at Oxford University recently announced that an experimental coronavirus vaccine in an initial trial was shown to elicit a protective immune response in hundreds of people who received the vaccine. The researchers began testing in April on about 1,000 people, and half received the experimental vaccine.
