Alarming Coronavirus Increases Continue in LA County; Testing Expanding

The coronavirus continued its alarming spread across Los Angeles County Wednesday, with more than 40 additional fatalities and 2,700 new cases confirmed, and health officials said they would be dramatically expanding access to testing in hard-hit communities.

County public health director Barbara Ferrer said hospitalization numbers also continue to increase, with the county seeing its highest patient numbers of the pandemic.

"We are in an alarming and dangerous phase in this pandemic here in LA County and we're in this place along with 29 other counties across the state,'' Ferrer said. "These alarming trends reflect behaviors from three weeks ago, and it will take several weeks to see if our behavior now, including the rollback of previously opened sectors, slows the spread of the virus. What we do today impacts our lives in the weeks and the months ahead.''

Ferrer announced another 44 deaths due to the coronavirus, although three of those fatalities were reported Tuesday by health officials in Long Beach and Pasadena. The new deaths increased the countywide total to 3,932.

She also announced another 2,758 cases, lifting the overall case total since the start of the pandemic to 143,009.

More than 1.4 million people have been tested for the virus during the pandemic, with the overall rate of positive tests at 9%. The rolling average over the past seven days was slightly higher, at 9.8%.

Ferrer again noted that younger residents between 18 and 40 continue to represent a larger chunk of people testing positive for the virus and taking up hospital space -- a trend that began with Memorial Day weekend.

"Younger people between the ages of 18 and 40 are also being hospitalized at a significantly higher rate than we've seen before, and it continues to increase. It's almost at 30% now,'' Ferrer said.

She said the increases in hospitalizations have accelerated dramatically in recent weeks, putting pressure on the medical system and potentially threatening the availability of intensive-care unit beds if the trend does not reverse.

"This is also further evidence that we should probably expect to see an increase in deaths in the coming days and weeks,'' she said.

How Long Until Coronavirus Will Cause Peak Hospital Use Across the Country

This interactive chart uses model data provided by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation to predict how the coronavirus will affect health care resources in different states. The maximum hospital bed use in some states, such as New York, has already passed while in others it is weeks away. Most states have enough general hospital and ICU beds to meet demand, according to additional data from The Associated Press.

Sources: State hospital bed capacity data from the Associated Press. Model data provided by IHME. Note: The model assumes full social distancing through May 2020.
Credit: Amy O’Kruk/NBC

"What this really means for all of us is that we need to start and continue to take the steps that protect our health care infrastructure so hospitals are able to manage the growing number of people that need inpatient care,'' Ferrer said. "That is why it's so important to follow the public health directives, like staying home, avoiding close contact with people you don't live with and wearing your face covering at all times when you're out of your house.''

She noted that the average number cases reported each day have roughly doubled since early June, providing further evidence of increased community transmission of the virus.

Ferrer and county medical services director Dr. Christina Ghaly said the current case numbers continue to highlight the disproportionate impact of the virus in Black and Brown communities and in low-income areas, prompting the county to announce an expansion of testing in particularly hard-hit communities.

Ghaly said that over the next few weeks, the county will be expanding testing sites by 65%, "with the entirety of that expansion focused on areas of high need.'' She said new sites would be established in Montebello, South Gate, Azusa, Panorama City, Compton and Downey-Norwalk. Existing sites will also be expanded in Bellflower, Pomona, El Monte and East Los Angeles.

Coronavirus Deaths in Your City and State — and Across the US

These charts use daily coronavirus death data from Johns Hopkins University to show the seven-day moving average of deaths at the city, state and country level.

The impact of coronavirus varies enormously in the United States from one place to another.

Source: Johns Hopkins University.
Credit: Visuals by Amy O’Kruk/NBC, data analysis by Ron Campbell/NBC

Health officials have been urgently calling for residents to return to stricter adherence to infection-control measures, including social-distancing, avoiding gatherings with people outside their own households and wearing face coverings when in public.

They declined to identify any exact trigger points that might lead to a return to the original "Safer At Home'' order that called on residents to remain at home as much as possible, leaving only for essential errands, and that shuttered most businesses.

"If we do a really good job of implementing all of the tools we have at hand, we can get back to slowing the spread, and that makes it a lot less likely we will return to Safer At Home,'' Ferrer said.

Mayor Eric Garcetti warned Monday during his COVID-19 update that the city was "on the border'' of raising its COVID-19 emergency status from "orange'' to "red,'' which would mean people could only leave their homes for essential goods and travel to work.

Earlier Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom renewed business restrictions in 30 California counties, including Los Angeles. His order again forced the closure of indoor gyms, hair salons, nail salons, places of worship, massage businesses and tattoo parlors. Newsom also ordered a statewide closure of all bars and forced restaurants throughout California to cease indoor service.

The coronavirus picture locally became more grim on Tuesday, when the county reported a single-day record of 4,244 newly confirmed coronavirus cases and 73 deaths -- just three short of the record set back in May.