Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer revealed Monday that the coronavirus pandemic has affected healthcare workers in the region.
While it was well documented that the virus devastated area nursing home patients in the early stages of the Los Angeles battle with COVID-19, less has been said about the cost of the health workers themselves.
According to Ferrer, a total of 11,841 health workers and first responders in Los Angeles County have been infected with the coronavirus. That total includes 1,149 additional new cases in the past week alone. Sixty-five percent of those affected were caregivers in skilled nursing facilities,
The worker population of “health workers remains the hardest hit” in the county, Ferrer said.
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That disclosure seems even more important given the continued high level of hospitalizations in the county. As of Monday, there were 2,017 COVID-related hospitalizations, Ferrer said. That’s not far from the all-time high of 2,232 virus patients hospitalized a week ago.
And those numbers are incomplete due to delays in a new federally mandated reporting process that has local officials awaiting information from the state. “We believe there are still 6 hospitals [outstanding]”Ferrer said.
There was no exact number of ICU patients administered
“A lot of people, when they think of capacity, they think of beds, literally, mattresses and pillows, and of course it’s much more complex than that,” Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the Association of Hospitals of California. Bee.
“Capacity is made up not just of space and beds,” he continued. “In fact, those are the easiest things to solve. This is evidence and personal and personal protective equipment, and unfortunately these three things are rare. “
There was better news on Monday in terms of new cases. The county health department reported 2,039 new infections, for a total of 176,028 since the pandemic began. Once again, Ferrer warned, “We still have a slight delay due to reported changes with the state.”
The county reported 17 new deaths Monday, totaling 4,375.
The test’s positivity rate is 9 percent, one point above where it should be for the county to reopen further.
