Los Angeles County this week made a report for surpassing 1-million coronavirus cases, since the time when its first case of the more contagious variant was initially discovered in the United Kingdom last year.
On Saturday, the county reported 14,000+ positive cases, 253 deaths, and 7,597 hospitalizations. Statistics were taken from the county’s department of public health show.
The whooping figures made Los Angeles County the top county in the nation in terms of coronavirus cases. The total number of cases reported in Los Angeles are then the totaling cases in the next two countries, Cook and Maricopa.
California was one of the strictest states in the nation when it came to the implementation of lockdown restrictions. Still, now, the state has seen a surge in the case in the past two weeks which makes averaging more than 41,000 new cases each day.
Even California stands at the second-highest number of deaths in the country with the 39th ranking in the number of deaths per capita at 81.8.
Regarding the issue, a news conference was held on Friday by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Gov. Gavin Newsom at Dodger Stadium, in which the officials confirmed a faster creation to vaccination center which will be capable of administering 12,000 doses per day.
At present, California has received 3.5 million+ doses of the vaccine and has administered 1million+ doses as well. Gavin Newsom said the state was on pace to exceed his goal of giving out roughly 1.5 million doses by Friday.
The governor tried to bring light to the issue by encouraging more positive trends which include Hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions and positivity rates of the people tested who have the virus has declined over the past seven days.
Meanwhile, the county’s public health department has also confirmed the first case of the COVID-19 variant, B.1.1.7, on an individual who recently spent time in Los Angeles County.
Though it was the first confirmed case for the new variant in the county public health officials strongly believe that the new variant is going to make a massive spread in the community and to confirm it requires continuing to test samples in a huge amount.
The public health department reiterated basic COVID-19 safety guidelines in preventing the spread of variant B.1.1.7, which they say spreads more quickly than other variants but doesn’t necessarily cause more severe illness or increased risk of death.
