Coronavirus: Los Angeles County health officials warn of “uphill” as hospitals continue to stretch to limits

LOS ANGELES (KABC) – Los Angeles County hospital space continued to shrink Monday as the latest wave of COVID-19 has put the county at risk of becoming the global epicenter of the pandemic, and leaving health officials worried holiday meetings could cause hospital system tensions.

The director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Dra. Barbara Ferrer said the latest rise is creating a health crisis and overwhelming hospital ICUs, adding that the current increase is related to too many Southern Californians traveling and attending vacation meetings.

Officials are again warning people not to travel and meet during the upcoming holidays.

“Whenever you are with other people who are not in your home, it is now much more likely that at any time that someone close to you is infected,” Ferrer said Monday during a briefing. “The only way forward for us that has any chance of stopping the hike is that we all stay home as much as possible and enjoy this holiday just with our immediate home.”

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The county’s director of health services, Dr. Christina Ghaly, said the level of transmission needs to be reduced.

“We need to avoid the rise of a rise that could happen if people mingle with other people over the next few holidays over the next week or so,” he said.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti again urged residents to stay home as long as possible, saying Los Angeles test sites have served 3 million people and the positivity rate at those places it is now an “amazing” 20.58%.

The county registered 11,271 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and the number of people currently hospitalized is 5,709, 21% of whom are in the ICU.

“Public Health warns that without a change in the way we celebrate the winter holidays, Los Angeles County will experience a higher-than-increased increase,” the county said. “Hospitals already have overcapacity and the high-quality medical care we’re used to in Los Angeles County is starting to compromise, as our front-line health care workers are beyond the limit.”

Meanwhile, the county said it expected to receive 116,600 doses of the Modern vaccine during the first shipment some time this week.

City News Service contributed to this report.