After peaking at over 8,000, LA County was hospitalized with less than 7,500 COVID-19 – NBC Los Angeles

Los Angeles County reported 11,366 new cases of COVID-19 and 108 additional deaths on Sunday, bringing the county to a total of 1,014,662 cases and 13,848 deaths.

County health officials said the number of new cases reported on Sunday reflected an undercount due to delays from weekend reports.

The number of coronavirus cases in county hospitals decreased from 7,597 on Saturday to 7,498, at 23% in the ICU. Hospitalizations have recently been on the decline, after peaking just over 8,000.

The county has a total of approximately 2,500 licensed ICU beds.

On Saturday, the Los Angeles County Public Health Service confirmed the first case of COVID-19 subspecies B.1.1.7, the same subspecies found in the United Kingdom, in an individual recently spent in Los Angeles County. The individual is a man who traveled to Oregon, where he is now isolated.

This variant was confirmed by Quest Laboratories, Washington.

This is the first confirmed variant case in Los Angeles County, but public health officials here believe that new, more contagious strains have already spread to the community and continue to test samples. I will.

The presence of a British variant in Los Angeles County is problematic because our healthcare system is already in serious tension and there are more than 7,500 people currently hospitalized. “

“Our community has been blamed for the surge in winter and has experienced five times as many cases, hospitalizations and deaths as in summer. This highly contagious variant allows us to work, store, and And at our home.

“We are in the midst of a public health emergency, so do everything you can to protect yourself and your loved ones. If you need to work outside your home, your workplace is everything. Make sure you comply with the mandatory safety directives of the person who can keep them out of the way, provide protective equipment and face coverings as needed, and implement full infection control measures. For this, if you need to stay away from all non-family members and be around others, always keep a distance and wear a face cover. Wash your hands every hour and often Wipe the surface that touches multiple times a day. You need to use the tools at hand to prevent mutual infection. “

The new strain does not make people sick, but it is much easier to spread. That is, it can spread rapidly throughout the population.

Health officials warn that the number of hospitals could increase significantly again for people infected during Christmas and New Year holidays. New cases continue to increase daily in the county, which means that more people are constantly hospitalized.

After the first case of a new COVID-19 mutant was identified in LA County, health officials say there are many reasons for residents to crouch, stay home, and leave the crowd. Michelle Valles will report on NBC4 News on Sunday, January 17, 2021.

The figure of one million people is about one-tenth of the total population, but modeling released by the county this week estimates that one-third of the population is actually infected and probably doesn’t know that. It remains.

Meanwhile, the county is working to step up its vaccination efforts and plans to open five large-scale vaccine sites on Tuesday, including the Inglewood Forum. These will be added to the large site opened by the city at Dodger Stadium on Friday, as well as the 75 smaller sites already operated by the county.

The current main issue is the availability of vaccines.

As of Thursday, the county has administered more than 279,000 vaccines to health care workers and staff, as well as residents of skilled nursing and long-term care facilities, said Dr. Paul Simon, Chief Scientific Officer of the County Public Health Service. He said he did. .. He said he had given 44% of the vaccine that the county received for use as the first dose in a double-dose regimen and 30% of the vaccine that was designated for use as the second dose.

“The remaining doses were distributed to our partner vaccination providers or allocated for use over the next few weeks,” Simon said.

Simon said he sympathizes with people who are dissatisfied with the slow pace of vaccination, especially those over the age of 65 who are already vaccinated in other jurisdictions deeper in the distribution process. .. Los Angeles County does not plan to vaccinate these people until at least February, as it is expected that it will take to complete vaccination of health care workers.

“We also want to extend vaccination to people over the age of 65 as soon as possible,” Simon said. “The main barrier at this point is the lack of adequate vaccine supply. We are very much looking forward to the arrival of additional vaccines soon so that we can start vaccination of the elderly in the coming weeks. People and others are naturally anxious and often dissatisfied with the delay in vaccination. We promise to increase access to the vaccine as soon as possible. “