On Monday, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 2,988 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 24% of these people are in the ICU, adding to concerns of capacity at local medical centers.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has surpassed all-time highs every day since Dec. 1 and has increased nearly every day since Nov. 1.
According to the state as of Monday, the Southern California region has 10.9% staffed adult ICU capacity remaining.
As hospitalizations increase, not only is capacity at hospitals becoming a concern, but increased cases in the community directly translate to higher case numbers among healthcare workers. This week, Public Health reported an additional 1,745 new cases among healthcare workers. This is more than twice the number reported last week and the highest weekly number ever reported.
And the situation is likely to worsen. Monday’s test positivity rate was 11.6%. Just one month before, on Nov. 7, the test positivity rate was 5%.
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. From April, there has been an increase of people reporting they’ve recently visited another person’s home. It appears that the warnings of the surge in cases of late October and early November had limited impact on people’s willingness to visit another person’s home, with just a slight dip the week before Thanksgiving. Throughout the month of November, about one-third of respondents said they visited someone else’s home.
