“This is clearly the most recent increase in winter holidays and the New Year.” He was the head of public health sciences in Los Angeles, Dr. Paul Simon, on Friday. “It is likely to continue in the next few weeks or two. We expect these numbers to remain high in the coming weeks, ”he said.
Los Angeles County reported another 18,313 cases of COVID-19 on Friday, one of the pandemic’s highest daily totals. The number of new cases on Thursday was 19,719 – another almost record. The county also reported 300 daily coronavirus-related deaths for the first time in 318.
But on Monday, other officials were less certain about the increase.
Asked about the sudden increase, California Health and Human Services Director Dr. Mark Ghaly said: “We still have a few days before we can say with confidence.” Ghlay then noted that the situation “looks encouraging at the moment”.
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His boss, Governor Gavin Newsom, immediately sought to moderate this optimistic assessment, emphasizing: time. “
Newsom reminded Californians that “Monday’s data is usually lower” than seen at the end of the week. “We will know more as the dust settles and the delays in reporting that we usually see over the weekend,” said Newsom. “This week will be profoundly significant in terms of being able to answer that question.”
The governor announced 39,839 new positive tests for Covid-19 on Monday. He indicated that the 14-day test positive rate was up 13.7% from 12.6%, but that increase was not as sharp as before.
Newsom said on Monday that the number of people hospitalized had risen just 6% in the past 14 days. He called it “one of the smallest increases we’ve seen in a period of two weeks in some time”.
“It is just a point of certain optimism, a little light,” said the governor, before warning that another jump in hospitalizations with the recent winter vacation is still possible.
The number of reported deaths related to the virus across the state in the past 24 hours was 264. But Newsom warned that the 7-day average of daily deaths was 476 and that the lives of more than 5,500 Californians were lost to the pandemic in the United States. last 14 days.
In Los Angeles on Monday, supervisor Hilda Solis said definitively at the Covid County briefing: “We are starting to see the holiday season increase materialize. The situation is more dire than ever. Hospitals are on the verge of screening for care, which means that decisions will need to be made about who can receive essential resources. “
County public health director Barbara Ferrer acknowledged that the new infection chart “shows the small drop in new cases after the New Year holiday”, but Ferrer attributed the drop to declining tests. “We hope to see another increase now that the Christmas holiday is two weeks away,” she said.
“Covid kills someone every 8 minutes” in LA County, said Ferrer. “Ten people test positive every minute.”
Ferrer reported 12,617 new cases on Monday. That represents 18,313 new infections reported on Friday and an almost record 19,719 daily cases on Thursday.
As of Monday, 137 new virus deaths have been reported, for a total of 12,387 so far in LA County. Last week, the region lost 1,500 people to the pandemic, Ferrer said.
On Monday, 7,910 were hospitalized with the virus in Los Angeles. County Health Services director Dr. Christina Ghaly said that “the number of people hospitalized has stabilized for now”. But, she warned, the number of ICU beds available in all hospitals in the region has dropped to 46. That is for a county of 10 million people. There were 650 hospital beds available for the same population, said the director.
“We have a private hospital that is going through an internal disaster,” said Ghaly, “and the EMS agency is working with them to solve their problems, which are mainly related to staff.”
“The chart shows the small drop in new cases after the New Year holidays due to declining testing,” said Ferrer. “We hope to see another increase now that the Christmas holiday is two weeks away.”
The confusion over an increase in the number of viruses makes the sudden decision, announced on Sunday, to end testing at two major Los Angeles locations – among the largest in the country – all the more intriguing. Dodger Stadium and the VA campus in Brentwood account for 1/3 of the county’s testing capacity, according to Ferrer. These sites will focus exclusively on vaccine delivery starting on Monday, according to LA Mayor Eric Garcetti.