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View Winners → In Two Weeks, More Than 1,000 L.A. County Residents Have Died of COVID-19
Arcadia Weekly Dec 23, 2020
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Using the 7-day daily average from deaths 7 days ago prevents from putting too much weight in a single daily number and it accounts for daily fluctuations in deaths reported to the health department and shows a clearer picture of death trends. | Graph courtesy of Public Health
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has surpassed 9,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths. L.A. County has experience more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths in just two weeks; on Dec. 8 the County reported 8,000 deaths. This is an average of nearly 73 COVID-19 deaths per day over the past two weeks.
Tuesday, Public Health confirmed 88 new deaths and 12,954 new cases of COVID-19.
There are 5,866 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 20% of these people are in the ICU. The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 Tuesday is again a new high. Tuesday’s daily hospitalization count has increased more than 2,700 daily patients from two weeks ago, when the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 was 3,113.
Testing results are available for more than 4,425,000 individuals with 14% of people testing positive.
The University of Southern California’s Center for Social and Economic Research continues to conduct a weekly representative survey with L.A. County residents about their actions through the pandemic. As cases continue to surge, nearly 80% of survey respondents indicated they visited a grocery store or pharmacy in the past week. Thirty percent of survey respondents indicated they visited a friend, neighbor or relative, and 30% of the respondents indicated they had visitors at their residence.
If the survey is representative of L.A. County residents, more than 3,000,000 residents are not following public health guidelines. Being in close physical distance with non-household members, especially when unmasked and not distanced, increases risk and contributes to easy spread of the virus. Many people infected with COVID-19, are asymptomatic and unknowingly spread the disease to others, including to those who have underlying health conditions with increased risk for serious illness and death.
“Our actions have an impact on the health and well-being of many people in our county, and not following the public health rules has deadly consequences,” said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of Public Health. “The virus has spread across the entire county and everyone, employers and residents, need to be extra vigilant in their precautions to protect themselves and others. This is not the time to crowd at stores, to attend parties and gatherings, or to travel. If every person can find it in themselves to celebrate the meaning of the holidays by protecting each other from the virus, we have a chance to stop the surge.”
