County continues record-setting COVID case counts

LOS ANGELES (CNS) — For the second time in two days and third time this week, Los Angeles County set a new record Friday for daily COVID-19 infections, reporting nearly 14,000 new cases and pushing the county over the cumulative half-million mark.

The county reported 13,815 new cases on Friday, above the record set Thursday of 12,819 and well beyond the previous record set Sunday of 10,528. For context, the county two weeks ago was averaging 4,200 new cases per day, but this week’s average is 10,200.

“We’re in uncharted territory at this point,” county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. “We’re seeing daily numbers of cases and hospitalizations that we’ve not experienced and frankly did not anticipate. Our intensive care unit capacity continues to drop. We’re on a very dangerous track to seeing unprecedented and catastrophic suffering and death here in LA County if we can’t stop the surge. And in order to stop this very dangerous surge, today I’m making a request to everyone in LA County to stay home as much as possible.”

The new cases reported Friday gave the county a cumulative total of 501,635 since the start of the pandemic. The death toll also grew Friday, with the county announcing 50 more fatalities, two of which were actually reported Thursday by Long Beach health officials. The new deaths increased the overall total to 8,199.

Hospitalization numbers also continued a troubling climb, with the county reporting 3,624 people being treated for the Coronavirus, and 23% of those people, roughly 830, were in intensive care.

Ferrer said if current trends continue, the number of Coronavirus patients hospitalized and in intensive care will double in two weeks — a troubling circumstance given the roughly 2,100 available adult ICU beds in the entire county, a number based more on available staffing than physical beds.

According to the county Department of Public Health website, the county as of Thursday had 606 non-specialized adult hospital beds available, and 71 adult ICU beds.

For the week that ended last Saturday, the county averaged 658 confirmed or suspected COVID patients in ICU beds each day, along with 1,483 ICU patients being treated for non-COVID reasons, leaving a daily average of 96 available/staffed beds.

Ferrer said cases were already trending upward in the county prior to Thanksgiving, prompting the county to cut off outdoor dining at restaurants, but the current dramatic surge in cases is directly attributable to gatherings and travel that occurred over the holiday in spite of public health warnings, creating a surge on top of a surge.

And if another surge from Christmas compounds matters, the situation at hospitals “could become catastrophic,” Ferrer said.

As of Friday, the following areas reported COVID-19 cases and deaths:

• Palmdale: 9,950 cases and 96 deaths.

• Lancaster: 8,610 cases and 89 deaths (includes cases associated with correctional facility outbreaks).

• Lake Los Angeles: 588 cases and four deaths.

• Quartz Hill: 444 cases and 14 deaths.

• Sun Village: 362 cases and three deaths.

• Littlerock: 198 cases and one death.

• Littlerock/Pearblossom: 190 cases and no deaths.

• Acton: 162 cases and three deaths.

• Agua Dulce: 78 cases and no deaths.

• Leona Valley: 41 cases and no deaths.

• Littlerock/Juniper Hills: 40 cases and no deaths.

• Pearblossom/Llano: 35 cases and one death.

• Elizabeth Lake: 22 cases and no deaths.

• Llano: 22 cases and no deaths.

• Lake Hughes: 17 cases and no deaths.