L.A. County Is Looking At Further Closures If Covid-19 Numbers Surge Again, Says Mayor Eric Garcetti - Deadline

“As of today, 1 in 3 people in Los Angeles County have been infected with the virus,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti on Thursday.

That’s an 18% increase in 24 hours, raising the overall number of lives lost to the virus to 975,299 and pushing the county closer to the 1 million milestone.

The County Department of Public Health announced another 287 deaths from the virus Thursday, lifting the overall number of fatalities during the pandemic to 13,234.

Health officials noted earlier that about 170 people die in the county each day from all other causes combined.

Since last Thursday, the county has reported 1,689 new deaths — equating to an average of one death every six minutes.

In the meantime, however, the number of people hospitalized in the county due to Covid has actually been decreasing.

County officials on Thursday reported a total of 7,906 people hospitalized in the county due to Covid-19, below the 8,000-plus patients reported most of last week.

There were 1,699 ICU patients being treated for Covid on Thursday.

The county Department of Health Services on Thursday reported a total of 570 available non-ICU hospital beds, and just 42 available adult ICU beds.

“This high plateau does not leave enough open beds to care for patients without Covid.

According to estimates released Wednesday by the county Department of Health Services, the COVID-19 transmission rate — the number of people a Covid patient infects with the virus — is hovering at about 0.97

The county’s modeling also estimates that roughly 1 in every 115 residents who are not hospitalized or in quarantine are infected with the virus and capable of spreading it to others