COVID Numbers Climb in Culver City – Southern California at Zero ICU Availablity

On Thursday, Dec, 17, 2020, there were 921 reported coronavirus cases in Culver City. A total of 37 people have died, according to Los Angeles County health officials. 

Los Angeles County Health Officer Dr. Muntu Davis stated “Based on the science of transmission of COVID-19, the devastation we are experiencing now is due to people who were unknowingly infected with the virus being in close or direct contact with another person or group long enough to infect them.”

People with no symptoms and no known contacts with infection are still the biggest spreaders of the virus. 

The consequences of the surge on the health care infrastructure met the worst-case-scenerio head on Thursday morning, when the state announced that the 11-county Southern California region had formally reached zero capacity in intensive-care units. The designation does not mean there are no beds available, what it means is that there are no enough medical staff to care for care for them. 

Imagine a restaurant with 100 tables but only four waitstaff. It may look as if there’s plenty of space to be seated and served; there isn’t. 

Last week, county hospitals operated approximately ten thousand non-ICU beds per day, based on physical space and available staffing. While they are are licensed to operate about 17,000 non-ICU beds, but that number is restricted by the availability of staffing to treat patients.

La County’s Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said average daily coronavirus deaths have spiked up 267% since Nov. 9, reaching 44 per day as of last week, and likely even higher this week given the recent rising death figures. Ferrer said that equates to two people in the county dying from COVID- 19 every hour.