'A Human Disaster': 1 In 5 Tested In LA For COVID-19 Are Positive

LOS ANGELES, CA — Public health officials delivered an ominous message to Angelenos Monday: The worst days of the coronavirus pandemic still lie ahead. As many chose to ring in the new year with those outside their households, officials were preparing for a potential surge, on top of a surge.

It took almost 10 months for Los Angeles County to reach 400,000 cases, but the county garnered some 400,000 more cases in the last month alone, County Supervisor Hilda Solis said Monday.

"That is a human disaster, and one that was avoidable," Solis said. "But I need to underscore that it could be worse, the situation is already beyond our imagination but it could become beyond comprehension."

While the number of those dying remained in the double digits just in November, the daily death toll has begun surpassing 100 almost daily, County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. Ferrer said the county could be barreling toward a fate where hundreds, if not thousands, could die each day if Angelenos don't begin to heed health orders soon.

The warnings came on the heels of a weekend that also saw the county top 800,000 infections since the pandemic began.

SEE ALSO: Anti-Maskers Stage Protest At Century City Mall: Reports

With 9,142 new infections reported Monday, the countywide total reached 827,498. But the new cases reported Monday are believed to be an undercount, due to holiday weekend reporting lags and the closure of some testing sites. The county also reported 77 more deaths due to COVID-19 on Monday, pushing the countywide death toll to 10,850 since the start of the pandemic.

One in five Los Angeles residents were testing positive for coronavirus Monday, officials said.

"We're likely to experience the worst conditions in January that we've faced the entire pandemic," Ferrer said. "And that's hard to imagine. In slightly more than one month, we doubled the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19."

County officials also decried groups who openly defied public health orders over the weekend as an anti-mask protest who ignited outrage at Century City's Westfield Century Mall on Sunday. Unmasked protesters harassed customers inside a Ralphs, triggering several verbal and physical altercations between shoppers and picketers.

And dozens of people also attended a New Year's Eve concert outside a Valencia church.

"Our public health officials have one mission: to safeguard the public's health," Solis said. "They are not the ones to blame. The virus is. Despite what protesters claim, this is not a hoax. Take a look at our hospitals where care now has to be rationed. And it will only get worse if we give in to demands to reopen at a time when our cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to skyrocket."

While Solis empathized with the economic struggle businesses have had to endure, she urged Angelenos to still follow health orders.

"I'm sympathetic to the economic devastation this is causing ... but as I've said before, there will be no true economic recovery until the virus is gone."

And Ferrer didn't just urge Angelenos on Monday to socially distance and wear a mask. She also asked residents to "take a break from shopping" and ultimately avoid any activity that involves coming into contact with another person.

"Assume that this deadly, invisible virus is everywhere," she said. "It's better to be lonely than to be sick."

And as "COVID fatigue" has continued to ripple across California, pushing many to re-enter social circles and gather with families over Christmas and New Year's Eve, the numbers have continued to reflect the apparent domino effect.

Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of the county's Department of Health Services, offered a stern reminder that wearing a mask is about protecting other people from the virus and slowing its spread.

"For those people, I would remind you this isn't just about you," Ghaly said. "The facts are the facts, and they are grounded in science. Wearing a mask will protect you — but even more so, it will protect those around you. You may not be worried about getting COVID-19, and you may only know people who had a mild or asymptomatic course of the disease. You may think that you're young and healthy and strong and that you won't have a severe course. .... You may be lucky enough that that may continue to hold true for you or your family. But for some of you, this won't be how your future plays out. You will get sick. You may not recover at all. And if you do recover, you may have lasting consequences from this virus."

As for the weeks ahead, Ghaly warned that despite beginning a new year, the virus remains and, "The worst is almost certainly still ahead."

The current average of people testing positive for the virus in the county is now 21 percent, she said. The cumulative positivity rate from throughout the pandemic is 16 percent.

And the tidal wave of new cases has continued to place a significant strain on Los Angeles hospitals, where the county reported that 7,687 had been hospitalized for the virus locally.

Ferrer said that if current case trends continue, more than 9,000 COVID-19 patients will be hospitalized within two weeks.

As of Monday, the county reported a total of 577 available and staffed hospital beds, including only 20 adult intensive care unit beds. As of late December, county hospitals were operating a total of about 3,000 ICU beds, averaging only 29 available and staffed beds on a daily basis. Hospitals in the county-operated an average of about 10,000 non-ICU beds.

Ghaly noted that the current surge in hospitals still reflects cases resulting from Thanksgiving gatherings, with Christmas and New Year's cases not even materializing yet.

She said hospitals are continuing to struggle to find space for more patients, and ambulances continue waiting hours in emergency bays to offload patients. She said that over the holiday weekend, roughly 90 percent of county hospitals were forced to divert ambulances to other facilities.

Amid the worsening surge, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is sending experts to help with the oxygen delivery systems at six of the county's older hospitals:

• Adventist Health White Memorial Hospital, Los Angeles
• Emanate Health Queen of the Valley Hospital, West Covina
• Mission Community Hospital, Panorama City
• Beverly Community Hospital, Montebello
• Lakewood Regional Medical Center, Lakewood
• PIH Health Hospital, Downey.

"By working to upgrade challenged oxygen delivery systems at these older hospitals, we can improve the ability to deliver life-sustaining medical care to those who need it," said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

Also arriving in the county Monday was a team of California National Guard members who will assist the coroner's office, which has been inundated with bodies due to the surge in virus deaths —with one person dying every 15 minutes in the county from the virus alone, Ferrer said.

The City News Service and Patch staffer Kat Schuster contributed to this report.