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Los Angeles County this weekend passed one million cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic and reported its first case of the most contagious variant found in the UK last year.
As of Saturday, the county recorded more than 14,000 cases and some 253 deaths and 7,597 hospitalizations, according to statistics from the country’s public health department.
The numbers push Los Angeles to the nation’s top county in terms of COVID-19 cases, totaling more than the next two counties, Cook and Maricopa, combined.
Although California has been among the strictest states in the country in implementing restrictions, it has continued to see an increase in cases over the past two weeks, averaging more than 41,000 new cases of the coronavirus each day. .
While California has the second highest number of deaths in the country, the state ranks 39th for the number of deaths per capita at 81.8.
This gloomy forecast contrasted with an optimistic press conference held Friday by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Governor Gavin Newsom at Dodger Stadium, which is being converted into a vaccination center capable of delivering 12,000 doses per day.
California has received more than 3.5 million doses of the vaccine and has administered just over a million doses. Newsom said the state is on track to surpass its target of distributing around 1.5 million doses by Friday.
The governor has tried to highlight some encouraging trends: Hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions and positivity rates – the percentage of people tested who have the virus – have all declined in the past seven days.
Fox News has contacted Governor Newsom’s press office with a request for comment, but has not received a response at the time of publication.
The governor’s message on Friday contrasted starkly with his warning last month that strict lockdown measures would be enacted regionally when the capacity of intensive care beds drops below 15%. Days later, Los Angeles County was placed under new foreclosure orders.
Meanwhile, the county public health department has confirmed the first case of the COVID-19 variant, B.1.1.7, in a person who recently spent time in Los Angeles County.
Although this is the first confirmed case of the variant in the county, public health officials believe it is probably already spreading in the community and continue to test samples.
The public health department has reiterated basic COVID-19 safety guidelines to prevent the spread of variant B.1.1.7, which they say spreads faster than other variants, but does not necessarily cause a more serious illness or increased risk of death.
Louis Casiano of Fox News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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