Los Angeles County on Wednesday added more than 800 people to the list of those who died from COVID-19, highlighting the large number of victims of autumn and winter.
The increase means a jump in the total number of deaths, which reached 20,000 this week alone, as deaths from the disease exceeded 50,000 in California.
Most of the deaths occurred during the peak of autumn and winter, which overwhelmed hospitals and spurred new requests to stay at home.
Here’s what we know:
How were the additional deaths found?
The accumulation of 806 new COVID-19 deaths in LA County, most of which occurred in December and January, was discovered after extensive checks on death records, said director of public health Barbara Ferrer on Wednesday.
“This was a period, as everyone knows, when there were many deaths across the county. And not all of them have been reported for [the Department of] Public Health because of the volume of records. “
The county typically identifies COVID-19 deaths by daily reports from healthcare professionals. But the county also does an audit of the causes of death listed on death certificates. That audit is how the additional deaths were found, said Ferrer.
“The 806 deaths reported today,” she said, “reflect the deaths associated with COVID that occurred during the outbreak that were not reported to Public Health using the death report form, but were later identified through our attestation review. death, and we always do these analyzes. ”
Additional deaths account for about 8% of the total COVID-19 deaths in LA County in December and January, she added.
“It is painful to report this large number of additional deaths associated with COVID-19,” said Ferrer. “And it is a devastating reminder of the terrible tribute that the winter wave has taken from so many families across the county.”
What is the current outlook?
Despite the massive backlog reported on Wednesday, both coronavirus deaths and cases have been plummeting in recent weeks.
California is recording about 6,000 new cases of coronavirus a day now, below 40,000 a day six weeks ago. The number of COVID-19 patients in California hospitals on Thursday was 6,185, down from an increase of 21,936 on January 6.
The number of people in intensive care units across the state was 1,778 on Thursday, down 63% from the peak of 4,868 on January 10 and the lowest total since December 1.
The picture is also improving dramatically in LA County.
Ferrer said on Monday that the daily count of coronavirus cases in Los Angeles County was reaching levels never seen since before the winter peak. In the past seven days, LA County has registered an average of 1,956 new cases of coronavirus per day, an 87% reduction from the beginning of January, when there were more than 15,000 new cases per day.
“We continue to make progress in reducing the average daily number of new cases of COVID-19,” said Ferrer.
LA County also saw a decline in deaths before the reported buildup. In early January, the county recorded an average of 241 COVID-19 deaths per day over a seven-day period; for the most recent seven-day period, the county saw an average of 120 deaths per day, down 50%.
In addition, the county’s positive test results rate, which exceeded 20% around January 1, has dropped to less than 5%, said Ferrer.
The effective transmission rate in LA County dropped from 0.81 a week ago to 0.76, meaning that for every 100 people infected, the virus is being transmitted to 76 people.
What are the concerns going forward?
Overall, there is a growing optimism that vaccines can fight COVID-19 and slow dissemination considerably over time. One of the main problems is that the supply of vaccines remains limited.
And officials are gearing up for an increase in the most transmissible variants of the virus, including a California strain that looks increasingly dangerous.
The authorities were investigating a group of four coronavirus cases at USC, two of which were confirmed to be the most contagious and potentially deadliest variant first identified in Britain, B.1.1.7.
The other two cases are still awaiting laboratory confirmation, Ferrer said.
“All of these cases were detected as part of the USC’s routine surveillance and testing program,” she said on Wednesday. “The individuals are well and isolated. Nearby contacts have been identified, notified and are in quarantine. “
Scientific research suggests that the currently available COVID-19 vaccines are effective against the UK variant.
“But with vaccine supply still very limited, local transmission of the potentially most infectious variant in the UK underscores the need for each of our residents to continue to use all the tools we have to prevent transmission,” said Ferrer, ” including not meeting people you don’t live with, distancing yourself and masking whenever you’re away from home and around other people. “
There are now 18 confirmed cases of the UK variant in LA County, more than 200 in California and more than 1,800 across the country, with 45 states reporting cases.
Los Angeles County Director of Health Services, Dr. Christina Ghaly, noted on Tuesday that this week could increase cases resulting from meetings over the Super Bowl weekend.
“An increase in behaviors that facilitate transmission can still easily lead to an increase in the number of hospitalized patients in just a few weeks,” said Ghaly. “It can happen very quickly and, as we all know, it is very difficult to turn things around and start forcing the numbers back down.”