Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti struck a staggering comparison on Thursday. The mayor said the actual record number of 259 daily deaths in Covid-19 in LA County on Tuesday “was more than all the murders in 2019 in LA City combined.”
This is incredible data, especially for those who equated the virus with an annual flu season early in the pandemic. In 2017, the most recent year for which data is available, pneumonia and flu took 1,957 lives in LA County. At the end of 2020, the death toll due to the pandemic was at 10,346. Not only is it five times more than 2017 flu deaths, but it will also end up at the very top of the list of leading deaths. For that year, coronary heart disease was the biggest killer, taking 11,211 lives.
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Garcetti’s mixture of city and county numbers is indeed apples to oranges. But the contrast is still striking when compared to a year of murders to one day in Covid deaths.
The daily test positivity in LA County rose to 20.4% by Thursday. This means that one in five people tested in the province was positive for Covid-19. The result was 19,719 new cases recorded nationwide on Thursday. There were 8,098 people hospitalized with Covid-19. Twenty percent of the people were in the ICU. Since January 3, the number of hospitalized Covid patients has increased by more than 550 people. The number of virus deaths recorded nationwide on Thursday was 218.
COVID-19 Daily Update:
7 January 2021
New Business: 19 719 (871 404 to date)
New Deaths: 218 (11,545 to date)
Current hospitalizations: 8,098 pic.twitter.com/F9XULB2wdL– LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) 8 January 2021
Greater California reported an almost record number of daily deaths (583) on Thursday. These are just two deaths below the overall high of 585 that the state suffered on December 31st. This came when the country in general recorded its worst pandemic death rate ever at 3,856.
The mayor has issued a warning over the coming weeks.
“I do not believe this is a new plateau coming down automatically,” Garcetti said. ‘I believe it’s just a break before a new peak emerges from evidence we see of too much movement around Christmas and New Year. So hold on, because things can get worse. ”
You can see Mayor Gacetti’s Thursday address below.