The increase in coronavirus cases after Christmas worsens significantly in Los Angeles County, a much-feared scenario that officials say will lead to more patience at already overwhelming hospitals and an increase in deaths.
The coming days are expected to be critical in determining how badly this next boom will get and how much it will affect the conditions at hospitals.
On Thursday and Friday, LA County reported 18,764 coronavirus and 17,827 cases, respectively – well above the average of about 14,000 new cases per day over the past week.
“This is very clearly the latest boom of the winter holidays and the new year – there is no doubt about it,” said dr. Paul Simon, chief scientific officer of the public health department, said. ‘It started gradually earlier in the week, but [definitely] here in the last day or two. ”
New COVID-19 hospitalizations have flattened out over the past few days, but overall hospitalizations remain high and the intensive care unit system is effectively overcapacity in LA County. The number of people with COVID-19 in LA County ICUs continues to break records, and they rose to 1,731 on Friday. It’s about three times that. As of December 1. Approximately 400 ICU beds were occupied by non-COVID patients.
About 1 in 5 coronavirus tests performed daily in Los Angeles County return positive, a huge increase from November when only 1 in every 25 tests confirmed an infection. And if the transfer of communities is so fruitful, officials warn that activities that seemed mundane months ago are now taking place a higher risk of infection as ever.
Simon said it will likely continue for the next week or two, leading to even worse hospitalizations and more deaths. The number of daily deaths from COVID-19 is already breaking records; in early December, an average of about 30 people in LA County die each day from COVID-19 over a seven-day period; now on average about 190 people die every day from COVID-19.
“I think it’s a public health crisis at this point,” Simon said. Hospitals “are very tense, too much to expand.”
The number of people dying from COVID-19 daily now exceeds the average number of deaths in LA County for all other causes, including heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, car accidents, suicides and homicides, which is about 170 deaths per day.
On Friday, 318 COVID-19 deaths were reported in LA County – the largest one-day record on record, breaking the previous one-day record of 291 recorded on New Year’s Eve.
Friday was the worst day yet for COVID-19 deaths in California as well as in Los Angeles County.
There were 676 deaths reported in the state on Friday, including the 318 in Los Angeles County, according to a Times survey among health agencies. The figures easily surpass previous one-day records: 575 deaths in California and 291 in LA County, both occurring on Dec. 31.
“We expect the number of hospitalizations and deaths to remain high during this month due to what happened during the holidays,” Simon said. “We will see high levels of hospitalization and unfortunate deaths for at least the next two to four weeks.”
What is particularly frightening about the coronavirus, Simon said, is how unpredictable it can be in whoever hits it hard. Although earlier in the pandemic only 7% of COVID-19 deaths in LA County occurred among people without underlying medical conditions, 14% of all deaths are now among people without medical conditions.
“I personally know someone who was in his late 30s who became very ill,” Simon said. “Everyone needs to realize that this virus can have the potential to wreak havoc, causing tremendous damage to the body,” Simon said.
To prepare for more deaths, the governor’s office has prepared for emergency services shipping 88 cool trailers across the state that could serve as temporary mortuaries. Ten have already been nominated for the counties of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Imperial, Monterey and Sonoma.
With hospital mortuaries overcrowded and overwhelmed funeral homes forced to turn families away, the coroner’s office in LA is accelerating efforts to temporarily store bodies.
On Monday, six men and women from the California National Guard showed up to help farmers pick up corpses from hospitals in a cold store in one of the 12 cold rooms at the LA County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner. the coroner’s office. Additional members of the national guard are expected to arrive next week.
The leader of a trade group representing hospitals in California said Friday that the peak of the current wave is expected to end up in the state’s healthcare system in about a week.
Although hospitals across the country already have record numbers of COVID-19 patients, “we expect the worst of these to hit in another week or ten days, and that it could last until February,” Carmela Coyle said. president and CEO of California Hospital Assn.
“It was unprecedented for our state, unprecedented for the country, unprecedented for the world,” she said during a conference. “But we find ourselves today, in terms of numbers, at a point where we are standing on a beach and watching a tsunami arrive.”
Officials said the expected surge is all the more reason for people to stay home as much as possible, although people have become exhausted by constantly hearing pleas to prevent them from going out in person with others, which could transmit the highly contagious virus. .
Simon said one of these symptoms needs medical help, such as a call to 911 or a call to the hospital to let the operator know that you are seeking care for these conditions, or you are looking for someone with these conditions.
• Breathing problems
• Bluish lips or face
• Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
• New onset of confusion
• Inability to wake up or stay awake
‘It is also critical not to wait until you are ill to identify a regular source of health care. “If you do not have a regular healthcare provider, get it today,” Simon said.
‘At the moment, the chances are simply too great that you will be exposed to COVID-19. “And if so, you need a doctor, a nurse to warn and discuss your symptoms or options and care options,” Simon said.
For those who do not have a health care provider, LA County 211 residents can call for more information.