Total LA Covid Top 10,000 deaths; “Hospital overflow” – Deadline

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On the same day that California reported by far its highest number of deaths since the start of the pandemic, Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said Los Angeles had crossed its own dark threshold. On Wednesday, the county went through 10,000 lives lost to Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.

Specifically, Los Angeles County has recorded 274 deaths from the virus in the past 24 hours for a total of 10,056.

The 14-day average daily death toll for the virus according to Ferrer was around 150. This is “roughly equal to the number of deaths from all other causes, which is around 170,” Ferrer said.

In addition, “The impact of this current outbreak is overwhelming our hospitals and increasing the number of deaths.” The percentage of patients infected with Covid who are now sent to intensive care rose from 20% last week to 26% on Wednesday. So it’s not just the virus that proves fatal, but also the nightmarish scenario of Angelenos dying because they can’t get the proper care from the overwhelmed ICUs.

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“Some patients are waiting in ambulances because there is no room,” said Hilda Solis, LA County Supervisor, before revealing that “our medical examiner is receiving an overflow of bodies from hospitals that are not in. able to store them. “

Considering the amount of travel and mix-ups that likely happened during the holidays, Ferrer said, “we have to be prepared for an increase on top of this increase.”

Additionally, at the top of a conversation with Dr Anthony Fauci on Wednesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom revealed that the new, apparently more infectious strain of Covid-19 first identified in the UK had been found in California, particularly in southern California.

Newsom said he was informed “about an hour ago” that the new strain was discovered in the state. While the variation is much more contagious, it doesn’t appear to be more deadly on a case-by-case basis, experts say. Fauci said he was not surprised that there had been one case “and probably more cases in California.”

That, in addition to the outbursts and deaths described by LA County health officials, paints a very grim picture for the weeks to come in Los Angeles.

“Many morgues across the county are filling up and they are struggling to make room,” said Dr Christina Ghaly, who oversees the four hospitals run by the county. “This is causing the bodies to be saved at various facilities across the county.” Ghaly said the county is “working with these facilities to try to find alternatives to store these bodies.”

Ghaly said the LA County Mortuary, which she oversees, had “386 open spaces at the end of yesterday.” The problem, she said, was with “private hospitals that have problems saving bodies due to overloading morgues.” The county medical examiner took over that ability – or lack thereof.

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said a few weeks ago Cedars-Sinai had two floors dedicated to Covid-19 patients. As of Wednesday, the hospital had eight floors occupied by patients infected with the virus.

Regarding patients waiting in ambulances for beds to open, Ghaly said, “There have been unfortunate results for patients who could not be discharged to hospitals in a timely manner. When asked for details, she did not provide them.

Also on Wednesday, the county reported 10,392 new cases. The lower number of new daily cases is likely due to the fact that testing centers were closed over Christmas, Ferrer said.

“There is a lot of spread in the community, and that makes it easier for this virus to spread,” Ferrer said earlier this week. “So we’re all going to have to do everything we know to contain the virus.”

“Please don’t go out of your home to celebrate New Years Eve. If we don’t, then the start of 2021 will be worse than the end of 2020,” said Dr Ghaly.



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