Los Angeles on brink of stay-at-home order as county sees ‘most dangerous moments’ since pandemic began
Officials in Los Angeles were set to consider another stay-at-home order Tuesday as the nation’s largest county faces a frightening resurgence of coronavirus cases just days before the Thanksgiving holiday.
A record-high number of new infections recorded Monday — more than 6,000 — pushed the county over a five-day average of 4,500 cases per day, a self-imposed threshold that would force public health officials to issue a new stay-at-home order.
Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer called it an “impressive and alarming surge,” but she declined to take action until the Board of Supervisors meets on Tuesday. If the panel agrees to issue a stay-at-home order, it would be the first such action since the beginning of the pandemic in March, when California Gov. Gavin Newsom shut down schools and non-essential businesses.
The latest data from Los Angeles’ public health agency shows that the average daily cases in the county more than doubled from Oct. 31 to Nov. 13, the highest two-week jump since a 43% increase recorded in early July. The county is also seeing a rapid increase in new hospitalizations, with nearly 1,500 coronavirus patients in a hospital Monday, up from about 850 two weeks earlier.
“Los Angeles: these are the most dangerous moments since the first days of this pandemic,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a tweet Monday night.
“It’s not too late to turn things around, but time is running out,” he wrote. “I am asking you to keep making sacrifices to stop the spread. Together, we can flatten the curve again.”
Garcetti fears the city’s hospitals may not have any spare beds by Christmas, but he said local medical centers are ready to increase capacity and field hospitals will return if necessary.
Statewide, both infections and hospitalizations are on the rise, with the number of new cases reaching a new record of more than 15,000 on Saturday. The number of hospitalized patients went up by 77% statewide over the past two weeks.
But Los Angeles continues to see a disproportional share of California’s new cases and deaths. The county of 10 million people, which make up a quarter of the state’s population, has about a third of California’s coronavirus cases and more than a third of the deaths.
“We are fortunate that there is now a very bright light at the end of this long tunnel with the promising news about effective vaccines and we know we will be in a different place next year,” Ferrer said in a statement. “This year though, we need to continue to ask all individuals and businesses to own their part in slowing the spread of COVID-19 so that we can stop the surge in cases and ultimately get back to our recovery.”
With News Wire Services
