By City News Service
Dec 29, 2020
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - With conference rooms, cafeterias and gift shops converted into medical-care spaces, Los Angeles County hospitals continued to be overrun with COVID-19 and other patients today, while deaths from the virus spiked sharply upward, nearing the 10,000-fatality mark.
And while it will take several weeks to determine if the Christmas holiday will lead to another surge in virus cases, health officials said the weekend images of crowded airports and freeways paint a dim picture that likely portend an even more horrific situation at hospitals.
“The situation is truly dire, county Health Services Director Dr. Christina Ghaly said, saying the county s hospitals are “inundated with COVID patients.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported reporting 13,580 new COVID-19 cases and 44 more deaths. In addition, 6,815 people are hospitalized.
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To date, there have been 719,833 positive cases and 9,482 deaths and those deaths are an undercount due to the holiday and weekend reporting delays, health officials stated.
In addition, there are 6,815 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19, and 20% of them are in the ICU.
More than 4.6 million people in the county have been tested for the coronavirus and 15% of them have tested positive, according to the department.
The seven-day daily positivity rate is currently 17.5%.
Health officials urged the public to follow health orders to stem the spread of the virus.
“People mixing with others not in their household has driven the COVID-19 pandemic in L.A. County to the most dangerous levels that we have ever seen,” Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said in a statement.
The numbers, officials said, are undercount due to reporting lag, as well as a service interruption caused by an outage with Spectrum Service in the Los Angeles area on Friday.
BLEAK WINTER
616K people screened on Christmas Day despite Covid travel warnings as figures show 1 in 1,000 Americans have now died
Updated: 5 Jan 2021, 10:47
MORE than 616,000 people flew on Christmas Day despite Covid warnings as figures show the virus has killed one in 1,000 Americans.
The huge passenger numbers were revealed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) after they screened passengers through airport checkpoints nationwide.
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Travelers get tested at a Covid-19 inside JFK International airport in New York as hundreds of thousands of passengers ignored advice and traveled during the festive period Credit: AFP or licensors
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Miami International Airport was busy with people Credit: AFP or licensors