LA County Reports Record Number Of New COVID Cases
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Thursday reported 5,031 new coronavirus cases and 29 new deaths, bringing countywide totals to 353,232 cases and 7,363 deaths.
L.A. County Health Officer Dr. Muntu Davis said the number of cases reported was the "highest number of daily COVID-19 cases we reported without there being a backlog." He also said that the county's surging numbers have exceeded the spike seen in mid-summer, jumping 68% since the end of October, compared to the 43% increase that happened between mid-June and early July.
"At this point, no one should be still underestimating the spread of this virus, nor should anyone be questioning the actions we still need to slow the spread and lessen its impact on our collective health and our local economy," he said.
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In the online briefing, Davis repeatedly lashed out at those who have deemed COVID-19 to be overblown or a hoax.
"The cases that we're seeing, all of the science — this is across the world," he said. "I don't think anybody engineered a hoax to be worldwide in terms of a pandemic, let alone across the state, let alone across the region, let alone across the whole United States. These are real, these are scientific tests that are being done. The virus has been isolated from early on in the pandemic.
"Really that's a lot of undue credit to say that this is a hoax and this was just made up in order to do some other things, whether political or not," he continued. "Based on the science that we see, this virus is real. Based on the case counts that we see, based on the tests that are being done, all of this is real."
As of Thursday, there were 1,238 people with COVID-19 hospitalized, continuing a now 10-day string of daily increases.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
