Los Angeles County reports over 4,500 new cases of COVID-19
By Sam Catanzaro
With the prospect of a second stay-at-home order looming, Los Angeles County health officials reported Thursday the greatest number of new COVID-19 cases in a single day, for the second time this week.
On Thursday, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) confirmed 59 new deaths and 4,592 new cases of COVID-19. This is the largest increase in new cases, surpassing the count from July 14. Over the last 48 hours there have been 7,350 new cases, according to Public Health.
There are 2,173 confirmed cases currently hospitalized, 27% of these people are confirmed cases in the ICU and 17% are confirmed cases on ventilators. Data shows younger people between the ages of 18 and 40 years old are being hospitalized at a higher rate than seen at any point in this pandemic. They comprise of 20% of patients with COVID-19 currently hospitalized.
“This week we’ve hit concerning milestones. We have reported the most cases in a single day, the most hospitalizations and tragically high death numbers. Each case represents a person that is capable of, and in all probability is, infecting at least one other person. If you do the math, it is easy to see why the alarm. In a matter of weeks, the 4,600 positive cases today could lead to over 18,000 infected people in a few weeks. And this is just from one day of new cases. Without aggressive action on the part of every person, we will not get back to slowing the spread,” said Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer.
To date, Public Health has identified 147,468 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of LA County, and a total of 3,988 deaths. In Santa Monica, there have been 543 cases and 35 deaths among residents.
At a press conference Wednesday, Ferrer was asked if Los Angeles County planned on implementing a new stay-at-home order and responded by saying such action is not off the table.
“We can’t take anything off the table. We have to do everything we can to protect the health care system. Do we want to go back to a Safer-At home order? Absolutely not,” Ferrer said.
