By City News Service
US-VIRUS-HEALTH-FOOD
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Los Angeles County s death toll from COVID-19 crossed the grim 9,000 mark today, while hospitals continued to post record numbers of coronavirus patients days ahead of a Christmas holiday that could further exacerbate the pandemic as residents flout protocols banning gatherings.
The new fatalities lifted the cumulative countywide death toll to 9,031. County health officials said more than 1,000 people have died from the virus in the past two weeks alone, with the county averaging 73 deaths per day during that time roughly one fatality every 20 minutes.
County health officials also reported another 12,954 cases of the virus, while Long Beach added 436 and Pasadena reported 84. The cumulative case total since the start of the pandemic stood at 648,062.
California has now recorded more than 2 million coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, according to a county-by-county tally conducted by The Times, the first state in the nation to reach that alarming milestone and another marker of the wrenching toll the virus is inflicting.
The novel coronavirus has been spreading with unprecedented speed in recent weeks, creating crisis conditions in hospitals and making California one of the hardest-hit parts of the United States. Available capacity at intensive care units across Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley remains at 0%.
Hospitals throughout Los Angeles County are now strained and overwhelmed, Health Services Director Dr. Christina Ghaly said Wednesday. At certain points of the day Tuesday, 96% of all hospitals in L.A. County were diverting certain kinds of ambulances to hospitals farther away because they were so full, a figure that is usually only 33% at this time of year.
County health officials also reported another 12,954 cases of the virus, while Long Beach added 436 and Pasadena reported 84. The cumulative case total since the start of the pandemic stood at 648,062.
The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 as of Tuesday officially stood at 5,866, although the state s virus-tracking website put the number much higher, at 6,155. According to the county Department of Health Services, the county s 70 hospitals with emergency departments had a total of 768 available beds as of Tuesday, including 71 ICU beds only 38 of those adult ICU beds.
Public Health officials said of the 5,866 hospital patients being reported by the county on Tuesday, 20% or about 1,173 people were in the ICU.
In October, fewer than 150 patients infected with the coronavirus were being admitted daily into hospitals.
By late November, that number had doubled to about 300 patients a day as high as it’s ever been in the entire pandemic.
And now it has more than doubled yet again, to roughly 700 new hospital patients daily, just a few days before Christmas. That rate is bringing crisis to L.A. County.
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If disease transmission behavior does not change, a projection issued by the county Department of Health Services says that L.A. County could be headed to between 700 and 1,400 new hospitalized patients a day by New Year’s Eve.