Los Angeles County health officials are asking essential workers to use facial coverage inside their own homes in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in an area where the virus kills someone every seven minutes.
Barbara Ferrer, director of public health for Los Angeles County, said on Monday that “as there is so much spread, we recommend that people wear face covers while they are indoors.”
Ferrer said that this includes anyone who leaves the house every day to work or do chores for family members. She said it is especially important for people who go to work every day and live with elderly residents or a latent medical condition.
She said she will ‘add a layer of protection as we go through this wave’.
Los Angeles County is an epicenter for the COVID-19 outbreak, responsible for about 40 percent of California-related deaths and a large number of new cases.
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Los Angeles County health officials are asking essential workers (photo last month) to use facial coverings inside their own homes in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the area where the virus is killing someone out of seven minutes
Barbara Ferrer, director of public health for Los Angeles County, said on Monday that “as there is so much widespread, we recommend that people wear face covers while indoors”
On Monday, nearly 8,000 people were hospitalized in Los Angeles County, which had less than 50 intensive care units available in an area with a population of 10 million, said Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of Health Services county.
There is a hint of hope, with new hospitalizations across the state dropping from about 3,500 earlier this month to about 2,500. Some predictions predicted that hospitalizations would stabilize by the end of the month.
Although the county has seen a drop in new cases, Ferrer said this is likely due to declining testing after the New Year holiday.
She predicted another increase in cases of people who gathered unsafe during the holiday.
Ferrer said COVID-19 is still killing someone in the county every seven minutes, on average. Deaths increased from 12 deaths per day in early November to more than 200 deaths reported daily in the past week.
‘Now is not the time to meet friends at your home to watch the game. It is not time to stroll without a mask. One mistake is enough and soon five, 10 or 20 others will be infected – many of whom may be your friends, relatives or colleagues, ‘said Ferrer in a statement.
“This deadly virus continues to spread at alarming rates and the most important way to stop it in its tracks is to avoid interactions with other people and to protect us all the time,” she added.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 932,697 positive cases of COVID-19 in all areas of LA County and a total of 12,387 deaths.
In the meantime, California as a whole is turning baseball stadiums, fairs and even a Disneyland Resort parking lot into mass vaccination sites, as the coronavirus outbreak overwhelms hospitals.
California’s COVID-19 death toll reached 30,000 on Monday, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
It took six months for the country’s most populous state to reach 10,000 deaths, but only a month to jump from 20,000 to 30,000 deaths. California ranks third nationally in deaths related to COVID-19, behind Texas and New York, which is number 1 with almost 40,000.
Public health officials estimate that about 12 percent of people who contract the virus will need hospital care, usually several weeks after infection, as they get sick.
Los Angeles County is an epicenter for the COVID-19 outbreak, responsible for about 40 percent of California virus-related deaths and a large number of new cases
Ferrer said COVID-19 is still killing someone in the county every seven minutes on average
Governor Gavin Newsom and public health officials are relying on widespread vaccinations to help stem the tide of new infections, beginning with medical workers and the most vulnerable elderly, such as those in nursing homes.
Newsom, a Democrat, acknowledged that vaccine launches have been very slow and he has promised that 1 million vaccines will be administered this week, more than double what has been done so far.
That effort will require what Newsom called a ‘hands-on approach’, including vaccinations dispensed by pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, dentists, paramedics and emergency medical technicians and members of the California National Guard.
Orange County, south of Los Angeles County, announced on Monday that its first mass vaccination site will be at the Disneyland Resort parking lot in Anaheim. It is one of five locations to be created to vaccinate thousands of people daily.
The sites are “absolutely essential to stop this deadly virus,” said county supervisor Doug Chaffee in a statement.
The state will broadly expand its efforts with new mass vaccination sites in the parking lots at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Petco Park in San Diego and the CalExpo fairground in Sacramento.
This photo from the video provided by ABC7 Los Angeles shows workers placing bodies in a refrigerated trailer at the Los Angeles County Coroner offices in Los Angeles on Friday
A member of the California National Guard stands next to refrigerated trailers as a hearse driver leaves the Los Angeles County Coroner department in Los Angeles on Monday
Cars lined up on Monday morning near the downtown San Diego stadium, where officials intended to inoculate 5,000 health workers daily.
“It’s like a trip to Disneyland,” with cars passing by, said Heather Buschman, a spokeswoman for UC San Diego Health, whose medical team was administering the injections.
She said people looked forward to being vaccinated, with more than 12,500 health workers in San Diego County making appointments initially.
By the end of the week, the city of Los Angeles planned to convert its massive COVID-19 test site at Dodger Stadium into a vaccination center to handle 12,000 vaccines daily.
Lawmakers also continued to plead with people to maintain social distance to slow the spread of the infection.
“To die of COVID in the hospital means to die alone,” said Hilda Solis, chairman of the county Council of Supervisors.
“Visitors are not allowed in hospitals for their own safety. Families are sharing their final farewells on tablets and cell phones. ‘
“One of the most moving conversations that our healthcare professionals share is about those last words, when children apologize to their parents and grandparents for bringing COVID into their homes, for making them sick,” said Solis. ‘
And those excuses are just some of the last words that loved ones will hear. ‘