One person dies from Covid-19 in Los Angeles every eight minutes, according to a new county tweet.
More than 11,000 Los Angeles County residents have died of Covid-19 since the pandemic began. More than 5,000 of those deaths have occurred in the past two months, data from the LA County Department of Public Health show.
“People who used to lead healthy and productive lives are now dying from a chance encounter with the COVID-19 virus,” said LA County Health Director Barbara Ferrer on Wednesday, adding that the county is seeing more than 200 deaths a day.
Cases have increased by 941% since November 1 and, so far, the rate of new cases in January is double what it was in December, according to Ferrer. In the past two months, the rate of positivity in LA County has jumped from 3.8% to 21.8%.
Hospitalizations are 10 times higher than on November 1, and Health Services Director Christina Ghaly warns that another increase is expected in the next two weeks. Currently, more than 8,000 people are hospitalized, 20% in intensive care units and 19% in ventilators.
Los Angeles County hospitals are still operating on contingency care, but given the overwhelming demand, they can venture into crisis care mode. If this occurs, patients may be transferred to other areas and all hospitals will be required to suspend elective surgery.