L.A. County Again Surpasses All-time Highs for New Deaths and Hospitalizations

145 New Deaths and 16,525 New Confirmed Cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) again reports the highest number of new COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations ever reported since the pandemic began.

Today, Public Health has confirmed 145 new COVID-19 deaths and 6,155 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized.

Of the 145 new deaths reported today, 55 people that passed away were over the age of 80 years old, 36 people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, 30 people who died were between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, six people who died were between the ages of 30 and 49 years old, and one person who died was between the ages 18 and 29 years old. One hundred and six people who died had underlying health conditions including 49 people over the age of 80 years old, 28 people between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, 22 people between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, five people between the ages of 30 and 49 years old, and one person between the ages of 18 and 29 years old. Fourteen deaths were reported by the City of Long Beach and one death was reported by the City of Pasadena.

Of the 6,155 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized, 20% of these patients are in the ICU.

Additionally, Public Health has confirmed 16,525 new cases of COVID-19 today.  This is one of the highest number of new COVID-19 cases every reported.

To date, Public Health identified 663,954 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 9,153 deaths.

The COVID-19 surge is having a devasting impact on L.A. County. In September, when the number of new cases remained fairly flat, the rate of hospitalizations and deaths were relatively low.  Once the County began experiencing this surge in early November, the daily number of hospitalizations and deaths increased just as quickly.  In order for hospitalizations and deaths to decrease, cases need to start going down.

We have asked everyone to avoid large holiday gatherings and simply get together with just your immediate household.  However, in spite of our pleas, we know many people living in Los Angeles County have or are traveling out of the area for Christmas. To all of you who have left the area, we simply ask that when you return – don’t make the situation here even worse than it already is.  When you return, you must stay home and quarantine for at least 10 days. This is very important and will help ensure that you are not potentially or unwittingly transmitting the virus to others.

While the news about cases, hospitalizations and deaths remains very alarming, there is significant hope on the horizon with the start of vaccinations in LA County.  Public Health is collecting data from the 83 acute care hospitals, where frontline healthcare workers are receiving vaccinations, as well as from the teams who are going out to skilled nursing facilities to administer vaccines to the healthcare workers and residents.

As of Tuesday night, more than 38,800 frontline healthcare workers have been vaccinated at acute care hospitals with the Pfizer vaccine. Our first two shipments of the Pfizer vaccine include 131,600 doses.  We also received our first shipments of the Moderna vaccine and are distributing the 116,600 doses this week at skilled nursing facilities and to EMTs and firefighters.

Public Health created a COVID-19 vaccine management dashboard that will be updated weekly to list how many vaccine allocations have been received and where they have been distributed. This dashboard will also provide a running tally of how many doses have been administered. Currently, this dashboard shows the vaccines being administered within Phase 1a where frontline healthcare and public health workers in hospitals, healthcare facilities, clinics, labs, and field settings are vaccinated along with staff and residents at long term care facilities and frontline EMTs and paramedics. For more information, visit www.publichealth.lacounty.gov .

Accurate and updated information about the vaccines can be found on the Public Health website and we also provide links to the CDC website where additional information about the vaccine is available.

“For those missing their loved ones who have passed, we extend our deepest sympathies for your loss and wish you peace this holiday,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “Tragically, we are on our way to witnessing 10,000 deaths from COVID-19 and our hospitals overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.  Every day, more than 14,000 additional people become intimately aware of the easy spread of this virus because they test positive for COVID-19. The winter holidays invite us to spread joy and light to those around us.  Perhaps as we weigh the request to delay travel plans and gather only with members of our household, we can find comfort in making these sacrifices because we know that by staying home, we are giving others the ultimate holiday gift: we may be saving their lives. We are in the middle of a horrific surge and we all need to take the hard steps, the wise steps, to reduce transmissions and exposure now, during the holidays, and as we begin 2021.  The sooner we all take these vitally important steps, the sooner we can stop the surge in cases that is overwhelming our hospital care system.”

Testing results are available for more than 4,469,000 individuals with 14% of people testing positive

The Reopening Protocols, COVID-19 Surveillance Interactive Dashboard, Roadmap to Recovery, Recovery Dashboard, and additional things you can do to protect yourself, your family and your community are on the Public Health website, www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.

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