When L.A. County COVID-19 dies near 10,000, fatigue grows

Los Angeles County officials prepare for another surge in coronavirus in early January as people who become infected while on vacation return to work and other aspects of normal life. But they realize that they are battling growing fatigue because they stay home feeling that the battle is already lost.

It is far from certain that the stay-at-home order imposed a month ago will remain in Southern California as hospitals are at the breaking point amid a multitude of COVID-19 patients.

Officials say more action is needed. They have asked anyone coming into LA County from outside the area to quarantine for 10 days to see if they have symptoms of the coronavirus.

Mixing up with people outside your immediate household is a major contributor to the current surge. All you need is an unfortunate encounter with someone with COVID-19 so that you can become infected and, unfortunately, infect many others, ”said Barbara Ferrer, the county’s health director.

The district leaders also urged people to avoid the impulse to just give up and stop following the rules.

“I understand the pointlessness so many people feel right now – the idea that some people just want to throw their hands up. But we can’t think like that, ”said Hilda Solis, Los Angeles district director. “To be more blunt, each of us has the power to cause or prevent death and illness in our family members, our co-workers, and even strangers.”

The current crisis has been fueled by a number of factors, including Thanksgiving travel and gatherings. Officials know there have been Christmas trips and gatherings as well, but it will be a few weeks before infections related to events become apparent in late December.

Ferrer said: “All the indicators tell us that our situation may not get worse until the beginning of 2021. The community transfer rate remains extremely high. … As cases remain at this alarmingly high level, hundreds more people are likely to die. “

For many people, the virus doesn’t cause illness or symptoms. “Whenever you go back to work, shopping, or going to meetings, you can always pass this virus on to others for the next 10 days,” Ferrer said. She urged those in quarantine not to leave the house, not to take in visitors and to find others to help buy essential goods such as groceries.

“We all need to give our hospitals a chance to cope with the flood of COVID-19 patients that arrive every day,” Ferrer said.

The speed of the fall and winter tide was breathtaking. On November 1, L.A. County had an average of 1,300 coronavirus cases per day per week; There are now an average of almost 14,000 cases per day. The daily rate at which coronavirus test results are positive again is now 17% in LA County, more than four times the comparable number on Nov. 1, when the positivity rate was 4%.

The disease affects – and kills – all ages, Solis said. A child died of coronavirus-related multisystem inflammatory syndrome known as MIS-C in Los Angeles County earlier this month. There have been at least 51 cases of MIS-C in LA County, and half of those were treated in intensive care units. Latino children made up nearly three quarters of these cases.

Ferrer said L.A. County sampled 29 coronavirus cases and that none were positive for the potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus identified in the UK. She said there is a high chance the variant is here, but it doesn’t appear to be dominant.

“Whether the variant is here or not, the steps we have to take are exactly the same,” she said.

The county could top 10,000 COVID-19 deaths in a matter of days.

A total of 9,564 LA County’s residents are believed to have died from COVID-19. Health officials said Monday they are sorting out a reporting backlog that they expect to add 432 deaths to the toll.

“As bad as it is, the worst is almost certainly to come,” said Dr. Christina Ghaly, the county health manager.

There is a real fear that such an “increase over an increase” may be too much for overworked hospital staff.

“It is a very different and infinitely more dangerous situation when hospitals see spikes, when staff are exhausted, they are thin and are already caring for more patients than they can safely treat,” said Ghaly.

The state put tight restrictions on businesses and activities earlier this month in hopes of slowing the spread of the virus.

Although the wave of new coronavirus cases has continued to surge since then, officials noted that the rate of this surge, along with the number of new coronavirus-related hospitalizations, appears to be decreasing in many areas.

“We are now seeing the majority of the state experiencing a plateau of new hospital admissions … in fact, with one major exception, that rate of growth is slowing – and that is Southern California,” Governor Gavin Newsom told Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties Monday continue to report high numbers of infections.