Los Angeles County, already in the midst of a devastating increase in coronavirus cases after Thanksgiving trips and meetings, is being hit by an increase in Christmas festivities.
The weekly average of new cases per day in the county, the largest in the United States, is a maximum of 16,193.
This is about 12 times the weekly average on November 1, which was 1,347.
Even with the deluge of coronavirus cases overwhelming hospitals across the state and in Los Angeles County in particular, some Angelenos have tried to celebrate the New Year at clandestine parties. Police dispersed more than 1,000 people who attended a warehouse party, the Los Angeles Times reported.
More than 21,000 people were in the hospital on New Year’s Day in California, according to a New York Times database, a 26% increase from two weeks earlier.
For weeks, many intensive care units in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley regions have been at or near capacity. In a Los Angeles hospital at the end of last month, incoming patients were waiting in a tent outside – the lobby was being used to treat patients and stretchers were placed in the gift shop.
Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday that the state of the virus in California made it “evident” that requests to stay home for the central and southern regions of the state, which were due to expire, would remain in effect.
“Things, unfortunately, are going to get worse before it gets better,” he said, adding that care for non-Covid patients in emergency rooms was being delayed as intensive care units struggled to manage the wave attack. of coronavirus cases.