Public Health Calls on Everyone to Stay Home During this Dangerous Time

– Plus Town Hall –

Public Health invites everyone to join the Los Angeles County COVID-19 Vaccine Town Hall

Learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine, how it was developed, where it will be distributed in communities, and when it will be made available to the general public.  

Time: 6 to 7:30 p.m. Dec. 17 and will be streamed live on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube @lapublichealth. 

Details: http://tinyurl.com/askcovidtownhall

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health  or Public Health Dec. 16, confirmed the highest number of new COVID-19 deaths, cases and hospitalizations ever reported throughout the pandemic.

The case and death numbers provided at the news briefing earlier today did not include the Cities of Long Beach and Pasadena.

Public Health Dec. 16, has confirmed 138 new deaths and 22,422 new cases of COVID-19.  The number of new cases reported today are, in part, due to a backlog of over 7,000 test results received from one large lab.

During the last week of November, the County experienced an average of about 5,900 new cases a day.  The Dec. 16, number is nearly four times that.

Since November 9, average daily deaths have increased nearly 600%, from 12 average deaths per day to more than 70 this week.

There are 4,656 people with COVID-19 hospitalized with 21% of these people in the ICU.  Hospital available capacity is decreasing to alarming levels and healthcare workers are pushed to the limits; this affects every single person living and working in L.A. County since everyone depends on essential hospital services when needed. 

Initial allocations of COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in Los Angeles County. As of Dec. 16, all nine designated sites received their allotment of the almost 83,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Each of these nine prepositioned sites worked with Public Health and EMS to arrange for the redistribution of vaccines so that every acute care hospital across LA County that treats COVID-19 patients receives a pro-rata share of this initial allocation. Acute care hospitals are beginning or will soon begin the process of administering the vaccinations to their staff at highest risk of exposure. The first round of COVID-19 vaccines in LA County are appropriately going to the heroes in this pandemic – the frontline healthcare workers who have been putting themselves at risk each day to care for others.