L.A. County Surpasses 9,000 COVID-19 Deaths as Hospitalization Surge Continues

LOS Angeles – The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health or Public Health, Dec. 22, has surpassed 9,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths. L.A. County has experienced more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths in just two weeks; on December 8 the County reported 8,000 deaths. This is an average of nearly 73 COVID-19 deaths per day over the past two weeks.

To date, Public Health identified 647,542 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 9,016 deaths.  Today, Public Health has confirmed 88 new deaths and 12,954 new cases of COVID-19.

There are 5,866 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 20% of these people are in the ICU.  The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 today is again a new high. Today’s daily hospitalization count has increased more than 2,700 daily patients from two weeks ago, when the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 was 3,113.

Testing results are available for more than 4,425,000 individuals with 14% of people testing positive.

The University of Southern California’s Center for Social and Economic Research continues to conduct a weekly representative survey with L.A. County residents about their actions through the pandemic. As cases continue to surge, nearly 80% of survey respondents indicated they visited a grocery store or pharmacy in the past week. Thirty percent of survey respondents indicated they visited a friend, neighbor or relative, and 30% of the respondents indicated they had visitors at their residence.

If the survey is representative of L.A. County residents, more than 3,000,000 residents are not following the safety guidance that directs us to not gather with people outside our immediate household. Being in close physical distance with non-household members, especially when unmasked and not distanced, increases risk and contributes to easy spread of the virus. Many people infected with COVID-19, are asymptomatic and unknowingly spread the disease to others, including to those who have underlying health conditions with increased risk for serious illness and death.