LOS ANGELES – In Los Angeles County, an average of 10 people test positive for the coronavirus every minute. Every six minutes, someone dies from Covid-19, according to public health data.
The striking figures come as California’s most populous province is rapidly approaching 1 million cases of coronavirus since the pandemic began last year.
According to provincial health officials, more than 958,400 people in LA were infected with the virus and nearly 13,000 people died Wednesday. The numbers are equally disillusioning in the state. According to NBC News, there are nearly 2.8 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 31,000 deaths as of Wednesday. A more contagious variant of the virus has also been detected in the region.
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Epidemiologists and elected officials are faced with an awkward question as LA’s Covid-19 crisis metastasizes: How did Los Angeles become the center of the pandemic?
“LA is a fairly large, complex country with factors such as overpopulation, poverty and a large essential labor force,” said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, an epidemiologist at the University of California, said. “These things came together at one point in the pandemic, where we are also seeing a lot of fatigue and reducing the basic things you need to do to stay safe, such as wearing a mask.”
In many ways, Los Angeles was unique to the crisis.
Exhaustion of the pandemic began to approach cooler weather and shorter days, making outdoor activities less enjoyable, even in a region known for its temperate climate. This, together with holiday travel, gatherings and a large essential workforce, with many members living in crowded or dense housing, has caused a confluence of problems.
“At least the way this virus is transmitted, you do not have to have an urban density of Hell’s Kitchen,” said dr. George Rutherford, also an epidemiologist at the University of California, said. “Los Angeles has small family homes with a lot of people in it. It’s hard to be a gardener working from home.”
The confluence of environmental factors is still confusing public health officials, who have repeatedly warned that the next few weeks could be the worst of the pandemic as the post-holiday boom continues.
On Monday, public officials in the province issued new recommendations for essential workers and people doing essential instructions to wear masks in their own homes to prevent loved ones from getting infected, especially those with high risk factors.
“One of the more heartbreaking conversations our health workers share is … when children apologize to their parents and grandparents for bringing Covid into their homes because they got sick,” said Hilda Solis, chairwoman of the council. of supervisors in Los Angeles County. , Said Tuesday during a news conference. “These apologies are just some of the last words loved ones will ever hear when they die alone.”
According to public health officials in the province, the recent boom began in November shortly after private gatherings were allowed, and personal care services reopened, and the Dodgers won the World Series and Halloween weekend.
Less than a month later, the province had to reintroduce the restrictions that were only introduced in the spring, including the eating out, which limits the number of people allowed in essential businesses and prohibits the gathering of multiple households. , inside or outside. An amended home order was issued around Thanksgiving, but the number of cases has increased exponentially by then.
“Once you get behind the eight ball, it’s hard to put the genius back in the bottle,” Bibbins-Domingo said. “This is the situation you do not want to be in.”
Yet this is the scenario currently unfolding in much of Southern California, where hospitals are overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients. According to the director of public health in Los Angeles County, dr. Barbara Ferrer, LA has seen a 1,000 percent increase in Covid-19 cases since November 1st.
“Everyone should keep in mind that the distribution rates of the community are so high that you run the risk of getting exposure when you leave your home,” she said during a news conference last week. “Assume that this deadly invisible virus is everywhere, looking for a willing host.”
But almost a year into the pandemic, it seems that fatigue is everywhere.
Mixed messages from elected leaders only exacerbated feelings of fatigue, experts say, beginning with the early shutdown of the federal government’s coronavirus and the downturn to state and city levels where opinions on what should remain open and what should remain, many can vary. .
“The federal government needs to possess the message confusion and the resistance it evokes,” Rutherford said.
Experts also point to confusion and frustration due to strict home orders issued early in the pandemic when California had relatively low cases of coronavirus. Unlike New York City, which went on strike after the falls soared, Los Angeles closed many businesses and had limited outdoor activities before experiencing such a boom, which caused some residents and locals leaders questioned the effectiveness of restrictions.
“You have to think about the psychology behind this,” Bibbins-Domingo said. ‘When you saw the devastation that New York experienced early on, it’s easier to implement public health strategies with a hard nose. It is much harder to do ten months when people are tired. ”
Despite the deadly uprising, protesters took to the streets this month, marching through grocery stores and malls, calling for the California economy to be reopened and people encouraged to defy the state’s masking mandate.
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Some of the resistance comes in the wake of elected leaders who dispute the rules they wanted to impose. Gavin Newsom’s government and the mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, both Democrats, were pictured indoors in a luxury wine country restaurant last year, while home speaker Nancy Pelosi cut, though many salons across the state was closed.
The setback was quickly up and down in California.
Small business owners protested against home orders and a recall attempt against Newsom quickly gained traction. In the counties of Orange and Riverside, the sheriff’s departments have indicated that stay-at-home enforcement will not be prioritized after restrictions are imposed, while some restaurants in San Diego and Los Angeles have been openly fighting home orders for weeks.
The biggest obstacle in reducing transmission speed, Bibbins-Domingo said, is convincing people that their actions can save lives.
“If we can not accept and understand how our destinies are put together, we will not become normal again,” she said.