Outbreaks of Covid-19 in the workplace have risen dramatically in recent weeks in response to increasing community dispersal, Los Angeles County health officials said today, warning employers must ensure their workers and customers are protected.
“We have a problem with the spread of Covid-19 in workplaces throughout the province,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of public health. “As the percentage of people who are positive with COVID-19 increases, so does a much larger number of infected people, often without symptoms, which now exposes a larger and larger percentage of people to the virus.”
She said the outbreaks of general workplaces within one month – including warehouses, manufacturing facilities and logistics businesses – increased from an average of nine per week to 44 per week. Schools and day care facilities have also seen a tripling of the outbreaks. Ferrer noted that most of them were ‘small and well-controlled’, but that they involved ‘dozens of staff and a small number of students’.
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Such outbreaks reflect a steady increase in cases nationwide. Health officials reported another 218 COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, increasing the nationwide death toll from the virus to 12,955. They also announced 14,564 new cases, pushing the cumulative numbers since the pandemic to 958,497.
Ferrer noted that the average daily new cases increased by 1,092% since November, that the average daily deaths increased by 1,133% and hospitalizations increased by 875%.
She said the province also supports the likelihood of a new variant of Covid-19 first discovered in the UK – called B.1.1.7 – taking off locally.
“According to the latest available science, the British variant does not make people sicker, but it is more transmissible, which means it can spread more easily,” Ferrer said. “Current projections by the experts predict that if left unchecked, this variant could dominate locally by March.”
Asked if he is concerned about B.1.1.7, the director of health and human services in California, dr. Mark Ghaly, he replied: ‘Absolutely, we were worried about it. I think we have 38 confirmed cases … if it starts, we’re going to see even more distribution than now. I think the tariff transfer is going to be significantly harder to contain if we see more of this B.1.1.7 variant. ”
With the ability of the variant to move quickly from person to person, Ferrer said people should continue with the necessary precautions while not ruling out the need for stricter regulations to control the spread.
Ferrer and director of health services, dr. Christina Ghaly, again noted that hospitalizations on average decrease to just under 8,000 patients per day. State figures show that 7,906 people were hospitalized with Covid-19 as of Wednesday, including 1,699 in intensive care.
The country’s record pandemic-related patient numbers were well above 8,000 last week.
“Even though the numbers on this number are equal to 8000, they have made a rate that is really not sustainable,” LA Ghaly said.
‘This high plateau does not leave enough open beds to care for patients without Covid. And that still does not allow us to be prepared for an additional onslaught of patients that could occur in the next few weeks in a possible upsurge after the holidays. ”
Ghaly said LA hospitals have not yet begun to see the results of the rallies and virus transmission likely to have taken place during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
“Even if the slight decline continues, we in the LA County hospital system are not in public at all,” she said. “Hospitals cannot maintain the high beds with COVID patients.”
She added: ‘To meaningfully relieve healthcare providers, we need a rapid and significant decline in hospitalizations for a period of one to two months. Do not allow this current number of daily hospitalizations to feel normal to you just because it is flat. ‘
“We need to be willing to do more if things stay high,” she said. “The work ahead requires us to take all necessary actions to reduce the transfer.”
City News Service contributed to this report.