Coronavirus May Claim Thousands Of Angelenos This Month: Garcetti
LOS ANGELES, CA — Thousands more Angelenos may die of the coronavirus in December, and 1 one in 20 residents could be infected with the virus by the end of the year, Mayor Eric Garcetti said Friday.
The mayor's dire warning came as Los Angeles County reported about 9,000 new cases Friday and 60 deaths - three times the death toll of just two weeks ago. It was the third time in four days that Los Angeles County set another record Friday for new COVID-19 cases. Garcetti said during his COVID-19 update there could be as many as 11,000 total deaths in Los Angeles County by the end of the year, according to county public health officials' data.
"That means 3,000 additional deaths in a single month," Garcetti said, adding that number is close to as many homicides Los Angeles experienced in the last 10 years.
"It is more deaths than we ever could expect in an excess of normal causes of death before this pandemic. This is the greatest threat to life in Los Angeles that we have ever faced."
The Southland dropped below 15 percent ICU bed capacity late Friday night following the mayor's press conference. According to the governor's health order, the 11-county Southern California region will fall under Stay-Home orders by Sunday if there is no improvement Saturday.
A rapid COVID-19 testing program in Los Angeles has entered its second phase, Garcetti said Friday, which will focus mainly on people ages 5-18 who are not showing symptoms of the virus.
"We hope this (program) will inform our schools, inform our educators and inform our young people to see how these tests can help us in the future," Garcetti said.
"It'll open the door to a range of possibilities, helping us stop transmissions earlier, making life safer for everyone from students to first responders."
The program's second phase began last week at the large testing site in the San Fernando Valley, and in the first phase firefighters and first responders participated.
"The simple truth that we know the COVID-19 rapidly spreads and rapidly spreads as a result of our own behavior, but we also know that we can slow that spread by wearing a mask, by washing our hands," Garcetti said.
Garcetti said the city is expanding its testing at its sites, where he said reservations for a test fill up daily. Garcetti said Los Angeles can now test 40,000 people a day with the recent additions of the San Fernando Valley super testing site and a site at Los Angeles International Airport.
Garcetti said testing site wait times are down despite an increased number of tests conducted.
"Los Angeles County continues to experience a pandemic that is moving in a direction that will cause significantly more suffering and deaths," county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. "As case numbers and hospitalizations continue to rapidly increase, the number of individuals who will experience severe health outcomes will also increase.
"The best thing to do right now and in the upcoming holiday season is to stay at home and not travel," she said. "Encourage your family and friends to stay connected virtually and delay meeting in person until we are at a better place in the pandemic. Collectively, we have a chance to slow the spread and save lives."
City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on the Los Angeles Patch
