'The Numbers Are High': LA County Health Director Warns Of Rising Coronavirus Cases, Deaths, Hospitalizations
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Los Angeles County reported 2,012 new cases and 42 more fatalities Thursday, bringing countywide totals to 91,467 cases and 3,246 deaths.
"The numbers are high," Dr. Barbara Ferrer, county public health director, said. "Although nobody needs to panic, everyone, everyone needs to pay attention to the fact that the numbers are high."
The county also reported that 1,633 people who are currently hospitalized, 25% of whom were in the ICU and 18% who were on ventilators.
"The issue for us is now you have three measures that are all trending the wrong way," Ferrer said.
But Ferrer stopped short of saying recent widespread protests were to blame for the uptick.
"We have some other indicators of other areas where there are problems," she said. "So we do know, for example, that because more people went back to work, we've actually seen an increase in the number of worksites that are reporting outbreaks."
Ferrer said the most important thing for county officials to do was to ensure hospitals were aware of what was happening.
"We are going to need to let the hospitals know that they need to be prepared if we continue to see this increase in the daily numbers of people that need to be hospitalized," she said. "We can't have a situation, for example, like there was in New York City. We cannot have that here. We're not anywhere close to that, and we don't need to get close to that."
And though Ferrer said the county was not likely to shut the economy back down over the current spike in cases and hospitalizations, she said it was important that Angelenos continue to wear face coverings, practice social distancing and refrain from leisure travel.
"The numbers won't keep going up steeply," she said. "If we all do that, we prevent some transmission."
Ferrer also said people should avoid parties and large crowds.
"You have to assume that every single person that you're in contact with could be infected and could transmit the infection, and you also have to assume that you, at any particular point in time, could infect others."
