The day after Los Angeles County crossed the 20,000 cumulative COVID deaths threshold, the death toll in the county tragically spiked upward Wednesday. A review of death certificates dating back to early December confirms over 800 more fatalities that can be attributed to the virus.
Meanwhile, more cases of a COVID-19 variant first discovered in the United Kingdom have been detected in the county, raising the overall total to 18. The new cases include two that were confirmed as part of a four-case outbreak at USC, with the other two patients also suspected of having the UK variant but are awaiting lab confirmation.
Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said no cases of a South African variant have yet been detected in the county. However, she confirmed a California variant that UC San Francisco researchers say has become the dominant strain statewide is believed to have a wide presence in Los Angeles County.
Ferrer said she has not fully reviewed the UCSF research, but: “We can confirm that between 40 and 50% of the samples that we sequenced in the public health lab since December contain what is known as the (California) mutation of interest.” The strain is referred to as 20C/L452R.
County health officials announced 136 more COVID-related deaths on Wednesday.
Health officials also identified an additional 806 COVID-19 -associated deaths that were not initially recorded as COVD-19 deaths, via an extensive examination of death certificates. The majority of these deaths occurred during the surge between Dec. 3 and Feb. 3, a period when many deaths occurred and not all were reported to Public Health due to the volume of records.
Consequently, that brings the overall death toll in LA County to 20,987 people.
The highest number of COVID deaths in a single day in the county is 318 deaths, recorded on Jan. 8, while the second highest is 316 deaths, which occurred on Jan. 30.
There are 2,064 people currently in the hospital in Los Angeles County according to county health officials. That’s 82 fewer people in the hospital than on Tuesday when there were 2,146 people hospitalized.
The county’s all-time high for COVID hospitalizations occurred on Jan. 7, when there were 8,098 people hospitalized.
There are 600 people currently in the ICU according to the state.
LA County reported 2,157 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. The county now has a cumulative total of 1,185,457 cases since the pandemic began in March.
To date, almost 5.79 million people have been tested for the coronavirus since the pandemic began. Tuesday’s daily positivity rate was 3.3%.
West Hollywood recorded 4 new cases for a cumulative total of 2,103 cases since the pandemic began. The city had 1 new death; the cumulative death total is 31 deaths.
Below are the numbers for areas near West Hollywood:
- Beverly Hills – 7 new cases for a total of 2,445 cases and 32 deaths.
- Carthay neighborhood – no new cases for a total of 874 cases and 56 deaths.
- Century City – no new cases for a total of 564 cases and 12 deaths.
- Culver City – 5 new cases for a total of 2,071 cases and 87 deaths.
- Hollywood – 7 new cases for a total of 5,133 cases and 60 deaths.
- Melrose neighborhood – 26 new cases total of 7,727 cases and 189 deaths.
- Miracle Mile – 6 new cases for a total of 892 cases and 16 deaths.
- Park La Brea – 5 new cases for a total of 555 cases and 1 death.
- Santa Monica – 12 new cases for a total of 4,280 cases and 146 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.
