Coronavirus hit a new high on Sunday, December 13, 2020 in Los Angeles County; reporting more than 4,000 hospitalizations for COVID 19, with 12,731 new diagnosis reported the same day. These additional numbers brought the county’s totals up to 525,486 cases and added to a death toll of 8,298 since the pandemic began. The number of hospitalizations rose to 4,009, an increase from 3,850 on Saturday, and 21% were in intensive care units.
“We’re in uncharted territory at this point,” Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. “We’re seeing daily numbers of cases and hospitalizations that we’ve not experienced and frankly did not anticipate. Our intensive care unit capacity continues to drop. We’re on a very dangerous track to seeing unprecedented and catastrophic suffering and death here in L.A. County if we can’t stop the surge. And in order to stop this very dangerous surge, today I’m making a request to everyone in L.A. County to stay home as much as possible.”
Ferrer said if current trends continue, as it’s expected they will, the number of coronavirus patients hospitalized and in intensive care could double in two weeks, putting ICU facilities past capacity.
As hospitals ramped up to take on the next surge of patients, the new vaccine is on the way. Healthcare workers were anxiously awaiting the arrival of vaccines as many hoped to receive their first dose within the next few days.
The county expects to receive more than 80,000 doses of the vaccine this week, with the initial doses distributed to 83 acute-care hospitals for administration to critical frontline workers.
Judith Martin-Straw
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