Los Angeles County officials hit the CVD-19 emergency on Friday, as the number of daily cases rose dramatically to 13,815 and the total number of cases peaked at 500,000, the latest indications that the virus is spreading at breakneck speed.
“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. ”
The avalanche of new coronavirus infection is causing hospitals to run rampant on patients and push some ICUs – or close to dangerous – to capacity.
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 that more people may be infected with the virus during the Thanksgiving holiday. It is hoped that the new investment order will make a difference, but it will take weeks before 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, an average of 200 new coronavirus cases were seen every day in LA County. That wave of infections stimulates current record-high hospital admissions numbers.
If the proportions should be the same, the recent average castle load of 10,200 new infections will trigger a tidal wave two weeks from now – potentially more than 7,300 Covid-19 patients in the hospital at one time, and about 1,700 of them intensive care.
According to Ferrer, all county hospitals have only about 2,100 ICU adult beds.
Significant spikes in cases and hospitalizations always lead to an increase in casualties.
In the past week, an average of 52 Angelnose deaths per day from Covid-19, according to data compiled by the Times. Two weeks from now, “we can witness the deaths of 80 people every day,” Ferrer said.
Already, more than 8,100 LA county residents have died from COVID-19.
The unfortunate reality, Ferrer said, is that “what we are seeing today is not the worst we will experience.”
“I think the issue right now is what we would call an increase in Thanksgiving … now we have a boom,” he said. “And it’s really hard for us to calculate exactly what we want in the next week or two.”
Illness is clearly spreading in an array of communities like never before.
LA County officials this week released data showing a large surge in coronavirus cases in dozens of communities in San Gabriel Valley, South Bay, Westside and Central Los Angeles. Communities that have seen a more than 200% increase in coronavirus cases since late September and late November include Silver Lake, Claremont, Rosemade, San Gabriel, South El Monte, H. Thorne, Palms, Westchester, Lennox and parts of South Los Angeles.
Officials insist the coronavirus is so widespread throughout the county that residents should assume that everyone they come in contact with can be infected.
Going forward, Ferrer said, all residents must take steps to protect themselves from infection – living in as many homes as possible and avoiding mixing with those with whom they do not live.
“Choose between today and every December that you are going to save yourself, you are going to save your friends and loved ones and you are going to save other people’s friends and loved ones.”
The director of health said it was too early to consider additional restrictions on businesses and activities above locations already in the county. With this in mind, people are being urged to abide by the rules that are already in place.
“I think what we have right now will work if we have almost everyone doing it. I think it will slow down the boom, ”he said. “We all want to start doing what they have to do.”
