COVID surge: One-fifth of COVID tests in Los Angeles County were positive as authorities announced plans to set up a temporary morgue.

Los Angeles (KABC)-Approximately one-fifth of daily coronavirus tests in Los Angeles County have returned positive, and state officials have temporarily placed the bodies in the county coroner’s office to store them. Announced plans to set up a place.

The county public health service announced an additional 218 deaths on Thursday, surpassing 200 for the third consecutive day. The new deaths have raised the county-wide death toll to 11,545.

Due to the increasing number of deaths, some hospitals are running out of space to store their bodies, especially the funeral homes that are too far to accept the bodies. A team of California National Guard was previously sent to the county coroner’s office to help manage the growing death toll.

Relation: COVID-19 deaths seen every 8 minutes in Los Angeles County

Mayor Eric Garcetti said, “These next few weeks will define all of us. Our own actions will be done by us, watching vaccinations, enforcement and our orders. I will decide everything. ” .. “These things are important, but if we coordinate good behavior together, it’s an unstoppable force for 10 million people across LA County.”

In a statement Thursday, the Governor-General of Emergency Services said a temporary morgue would be built in the parking lot adjacent to the county coroner’s building. The facility includes at least five 53-foot trailers from the state, five trailers from the county, and an unknown number of “ground refrigerated storage containers.”

“It’s important to know that we have plans, are in progress, and are still active. We will continue to work with each of the 58 counties, and these people are the most,” said Mark Gilarducci, director of OES. I am taken care of with respect. “

On Thursday, the county announced an additional 19,719 COVID-19 cases, pushing the county’s total to 871,404 since the pandemic began.

The percentage of people who were virus-positive throughout the pandemic was 17%, but the current daily percentage is 20.4%, which is higher than that again.

According to the state, 8,074 people admitted to the county with COVID-19 fell slightly from Wednesday, and 1,635 were intensively admitted.
Care. According to county health services statistics, there are a total of 552 beds available at 70 911 hospitals in the county, including 34 adult ICU beds.

Seventy “911 consultation” hospitals in the county with emergency rooms have been licensed for a total of about 2,500 ICU beds, but over the past few weeks they have implemented surge plans, averaging about 3,000 ICU beds per day. I have placed it.

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Given the increased number of cases and hospitalizations warned by health authorities thanks to Christmas and New Year rallies, the Public Health Service will separate on Thursday to ensure that companies are in full compliance with infection control measures. Issued a warning.

“Everyone, business or resident in Los Angeles County must follow the rules if it is possible to get out of this surge by the end of the month,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of public health, in a statement. Said. We report a large number of people newly infected with COVID-19. This is like resetting the time you can return to your recovery journey. I beg everyone to stay home as much as possible.

“Buying something other than food or medicine and mixing with others is an activity that must be stopped in the coming weeks because of the increased risk. Too many people spread the virus and are hospitalized for illness. There are too many people and each one dies too much. “

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Dr. Christina Garry, director of the county health services department, said Wednesday’s hospital continued to be accused of COVID patients.

“The number of new COVID-19 patients in Los Angeles County who require daily hospitalization has increased significantly in the past few weeks, but now seems to be somewhat flat,” she said. Post-Thanksgiving period and the first few weeks of December “

However, she warned that flatness was not a reason for the celebration and said the hospital would soon begin to see patient swelling expected to be caused by Christmas and New Year holidays.

“If the infection increased in Christmas and New Year, we would start to see an increase in their hospitalizations and cases, and that (infection rate) is actually much higher, and of the number of new hospitalizations. Flattening should not really be interpreted … transmission and diffusion are stopped. “

The California Public Health Service issued a new public health order on Tuesday. This requires delaying non-essential, non-life-threatening surgery in the community with an ICU capacity of 10% or less. Overall adjusted 0% capacity. This includes the counties of Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, Imperial and San Bernardino.

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City News Service contributed to this report.