Los Angeles reports one death from Covid every eight minutes

One person dies from Covid-19 in Los Angeles every eight minutes, according to a new tweet from the county.

More than 11,000 residents of Los Angeles County have died from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. More than 5,000 of those deaths have occurred in the past two months, according to data from the LA County Department of Public Health.

“People who otherwise led healthy and productive lives have now died due to a chance encounter with the COVID-19 virus,” LA County Health Director Barbara Ferrer said on Wednesday, adding that the county was recording more than 200 deaths every day.

Cases have increased 941% since November 1 and so far the rate of new cases in January is double what it was in December, according to Ferrer. Over the past two months, the positivity rate in LA County has risen from 3.8% to 21.8%.

Hospitalizations are 10 times higher than they were on November 1, and director of health services Christina Ghaly warns another surge is expected in the next two weeks. More than 8,000 people are currently hospitalized, 20% of whom are in intensive care units and 19% on ventilators.

Los Angeles County hospitals are still operating in emergency care, but given the overwhelming demand, could venture into crisis care mode. If this happens, patients could be transferred to other areas and all hospitals will be required to stop elective surgeries.