Los Angeles County broke past the 8,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19 milestone on Wednesday, while also recording a near record-high number of deaths.
Meanwhile, West Hollywood also had its highest number of new cases in a single day ever on Wednesday.
West Hollywood recorded 31 new cases on Wednesday, for a cumulative total of 1,533 cases since the pandemic began. The city had one new death; the cumulative death total is now 16 deaths.
There are 8,023 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Los Angeles County on Wednesday, a record-breaking number. That’s 125 more people than were hospitalized on Tuesday when there were 7,898 people hospitalized, a number that was record-breaking at the time.
Of those hospitalized, 20% are in the ICU. That translates to about 1,605 people in the ICU.
Crossing the 8,000 people hospitalized threshold is one that seemed unimaginable just a month ago, let along two or more months ago. On Dec. 6, there were 2,855 people hospitalized. On Nov. 6, there were 821 people hospitalized. On Oct. 6, there were 685 people hospitalized.
The overall ICU bed availability rate for the 11-county Southern California region remains at 0%. However, there are still few ICU beds available in Los Angeles County, although not enough to affect the overall percentage for the region.
The county Department of Health Services reported Wednesday a total of 44 available ICU beds in the county, only about half of them adult ICU beds. There were 573 total non-ICU beds available in a county of 10 million people.
The county’s 70 “911-receiving” hospitals with emergency rooms have a total licensed capacity of about 2,500 ICU beds, although in recent weeks they have implemented surge plans and staffed a daily average of about 3,000 ICU beds.
The California Department of Public Health issued a new public health order Tuesday that requires some non-essential and non-life-threatening surgeries to be delayed in counties that have an ICU capacity of 10% or less and that are located in a region with an overall adjusted 0% capacity. The order obviously covers Los Angeles County and will remain in effect for at least three weeks.
County health officials announced 258 more people dead from the coronavirus on Wednesday. The county’s cumulative death toll is now 11,328 people.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles County reported 11,841 new COVID-19 cases. The county now has a cumulative total of 852,165 cases since the pandemic began in March.
To date, more than 4.85 million people have been tested for the coronavirus since the pandemic began. Of those tested, an overall average of 17% are testing positive, an increase of 1% in the past day.
For comparison, on Nov. 1, the test positivity rate was 3.8%, meaning that only 3.8 out of every 100 people tested were positive. Wednesday’s test positivity rate was 21.8%, meaning that about one out of every five people who get tested are positive.
Below are the numbers for areas near West Hollywood:
- Beverly Hills – 29 new cases for a total of 1,762 cases and no new deaths for a total of 15 deaths.
- Carthay neighborhood – 7 new cases for a total of 657 cases and no new deaths for a total of 31 deaths.
- Culver City – 17 new cases for a total of 1,420 cases and 2 new deaths for a total of 45 deaths.
- Hollywood – 42 new cases for a total of 3,586 cases and no new deaths for a total of 32 deaths.
- Melrose neighborhood – 88 new cases total of 5,462 cases and 3 new deaths for a total of 112 deaths.
- Miracle Mile – 10 new cases for a total of 597 cases and no new deaths for a total of 7 deaths.
- Park La Brea – 3 new cases for a total of 389 cases and no new deaths for a total of 1 death.
- Santa Monica – 41 new cases for a total of 2,989 cases and 1 new death for a total of 76 deaths.
The Carthay neighborhood incorporates the areas of Los Angeles between the Beverly Hills city limits and Fairfax Avenue, with Beverly Boulevard as the northern border and Wilshire Boulevard as the southern border.
The Melrose neighborhood incorporates the areas of Los Angeles east of La Cienega and west of Vermont Avenue, between Santa Monica Boulevard on the north and Beverly Boulevard on the south.
For information about the many resources available to West Hollywood residents who have been impacted by COVID-19, CLICK HERE.
