With Los Angeles County now a major focus of the coronavirus crisis in the United States, statistics are difficult to process. One person dies every 10 minutes. And Mayor Eric Garcetti noted on Sunday that a person gets infected every six seconds.
But one thing about the pandemic did not change during the darkest phase: those who suffer the most. For those who have the means to stay at home and the strength to avoid meetings, COVID-19 remains a relatively low risk. For people who live in overcrowded conditions and who need to work, it has become an even more deadly threat.
Workplaces remain an area of growing concern, amid new outbreaks in retail outlets, as well as in other businesses deemed essential. The large increase in cases increases the chances of transmission in the workplace.
“If you had a previous workplace with 500 workers, there could be an infected person, so the risk of transmission to many people was less,” said Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhauser, medical director for Los Angeles County Domigo. “But now, with an infection prevalence of 1% or more, if they have 500 employees, maybe five are infected. And it increases the chances of spreading in the workplace. “
There are seven Costco warehouses with confirmed case groups of at least 15 infected employees, with one location in Culver City reporting 71 employees tested positive for the virus, one in Van Nuys with 50 and another in Woodland Hills with 42. Other affected stores include Lancaster, Monterey Park, Santa Clarita and the commercial warehouse in Burbank, according to data released by the LA County Department of Public Health.
There are eight Home Depots in LA County with active outbreaks, including in the Alhambra, Cypress Park, Downey, South LA, North Hollywood, Panorama City, Van Nuys and Signal Hill, near Long Beach. Ten outbreaks at target locations in LA County have recently been reported, with 217 employees infected.
There have also been infections recently among employees at six McDonald’s locations, four Chick-fil-A restaurants and two In-N-Outs; Best Buy stores in Downey and West Hollywood; the Nordstrom in Cerritos; Trader Joe’s in Glendale and North Hollywood; Whole Foods Markets in Santa Monica and Sherman Oaks; and Apple stores at the Beverly Center, Glendale Galleria and Los Cerritos Center. Apple closed retail stores in California before Christmas because of the increase.
New outbreaks have been reported at Los Angeles Fire Department stations. There are at least nine outbreaks underway at stations that have infected at least 65 people.
There are also three outbreaks underway among people working at Los Angeles International Airport, including American Airlines and JetBlue Airlines. At least five people who work for the LAX police have also recently contracted the coronavirus.
The virus is also hitting the entertainment industry, which rules for staying at home consider essential business. Groups of coronavirus infections have recently been identified among workers in three Warner Bros. productions. in Burbank – “Lucifer”, “The Kominsky Method” and “Young Sheldon”. In total, 35 people tested positive as part of these infections.
Another 45 cases of coronavirus have been identified at the CBS Studio Center in Studio City, according to county data. Twenty-three cases were identified among NBC Universal employees in Studio City and Universal City, including in the production of the “Mr. Mayor. “There were nine cases of coronavirus among the staff at Netflix Productions’ Gardena office.
LA County public health officials asked filmmakers to consider taking a break from work for a few weeks during what they called a “catastrophic increase in COVID cases”.
CBS Studios, Universal Television, ABC Signature, 20th Television, Warner Bros. Television and Sony Pictures Television delayed the production of several TV shows.
On Sunday night, an agreement was reached by the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union and groups representing film and TV producers and advertisers to recommend a temporary suspension of live production in Southern California, according to the union.
“Southern California hospitals are facing a crisis like we’ve never seen before. Patients are dying in ambulances waiting for treatment because the hospital’s emergency rooms are full. This is not a safe environment for personal production at the moment, ”said SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris in a statement.
Outbreaks can sometimes represent inappropriate infection control practices in companies, but sometimes not. Early in the pandemic, officials said that some outbreaks – defined as three or more reports of infections among workers in a company over a 14-day period – are yet another sign of how widespread the virus is in this county of more than 10 million people. people, where the virus can be transmitted from social gatherings to workplaces and then to new homes – a vicious cycle.
There is no doubt that an important factor in the transmission of the virus is social gatherings, including family events on holidays and large New Year’s Eve parties. Los Angeles Police Department officials and the sheriff said they had interrupted at least 13 New Year’s Eve meetings involving more than 2,900 people and arrested at least 90 adults on suspicion of violating the home order.
One thing is also clear: the risk of coronavirus varies by community. Latino residents are dying of COVID-19 at a rate 2.5 times that of white residents in LA County, a disparity that has widened since the pandemic worsened in California’s most populous county. Compared to white residents, black residents are twice as likely, and Latinos, three times as likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19.
It is also increasingly likely that the virus will spread more frequently in workplaces run by key employees, who then transmit the virus to family members or roommates at home.
This is particularly worrying in the densely populated and Latino neighborhoods of Los Angeles County, which have some of the worst rates of virus cases.
“I think it makes sense now, with the increase, that there are actually several avenues for people who are highly vulnerable to infection,” said Gunzenhauser. “Between where they live and where they work, the risks are only greater for these individuals.”
The disproportionate number of victims in communities of color has been a problem since the beginning of the pandemic. But after the second pandemic outbreak narrowed in late summer and early fall, the disparity between Latin and black communities compared to white residents has narrowed. The new wave has exacerbated inequalities.
“The progress we made over the summer has completely evaporated,” said LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. “The gaps have again increased dramatically, especially for Latinx residents compared to other groups, although all groups are experiencing increases in cases, hospitalizations and deaths.”
Coronavirus cases and death rates are also growing much faster for people living in the impoverished neighborhoods of LA County than for people living in the wealthiest areas. Among the communities with the highest coronavirus case rates in the county: South LA, east of San Fernando Valley, Boyle Heights, East LA and Southeast LA County.
Experts say that people who need to leave home to work and those who live in crowded quarters, often due to
high housing cost, are at greater risk of contracting the coronavirus.
“We are the densest metropolitan area in the United States. But we are also seeing the family spread now, ”Garcetti told CBS News’s“ Face the Nation ”program on Sunday. “One person is coming home – an essential worker – there may be five, seven, 10 people in that house. And it is a worrying trend that the victims are now not just people with pre-existing illnesses. “
At the beginning of the pandemic, only a small fraction – 7% – of the people who died of COVID-19 did not have underlying medical conditions. Now, 14% of deaths in LA County were among people without underlying medical conditions, according to data provided by Ferrer.
“There are more people than ever not only dying, but dying without any underlying health problems,” she said.
Gunzenhauser said the holiday season has been brutal and that LA County should expect daily coronavirus case numbers to rise in January, which will further increase pressure on hospitals in crisis.
“Holidays have been a great challenge because the human need to be with family and friends to celebrate these times is very strong,” he said.
Here is a more detailed look at coronavirus rates by race and ethnicity.
Latino residents of LA County have almost three times the daily rate of coronavirus cases from white residents.
(Los Angeles County Department of Public Health)
Rate of daily coronavirus cases by race and ethnicity:
Latin: 1,696 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 Latin residents
Black: 752 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 black residents
White: 636 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 white residents
Asian-American: 519 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 Asian-American residents
Compared to white residents, black residents are twice as likely, and Latinos, three times as likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19.
(Los Angeles County Department of Public Health)
Weekly COVID-19 hospitalization rate:
Latin: 80 hospitalizations per 100,000 Latin residents
Blacks: 58 hospitalizations per 100,000 black residents
White: 26 hospitalizations per 100,000 white residents
Asian American: 26 hospitalizations per 100,000 Asian American residents
By mid-December, Latino residents are dying at nearly three times the rate of white residents in LA County due to COVID-19.
(Los Angeles County Department of Public Health)
Daily COVID-19 death rate:
Latin: 16 deaths per day per 100,000 Latin residents
Black: 8 deaths per day per 100,000 black residents
Asian American: 8 deaths per day per 100,000 Asian American residents
White: 6 deaths per day per 100,000 white residents
Times staff writers Thomas Suh Lauder, Luke Money, Maloy Moore and Kevin Rector contributed to this report.