COVID hospitalizations in Los Angeles County fell below 1,500 people for the first time in three-and-a-half months. Meanwhile officials warn that some of the more contagious variants of the coronavirus ae showing up in the county.
“We still have a lot of community transmission,” said Barbara Ferrer, the county’s public health director. “We still have variants that are dominating that are thought to be more infectious, that’s the California variant, and an increased probability that we have more of the UK variant circulating as well. So our work is not done.”
Ferrer said the county has now confirmed the first case of a COVID variant first discovered in Brazil. Similarly, the number of cases of a variant that originated in the United Kingdom has shot up to 27, a 50% jump from the 18 cases known as of last week.
So far, there haven’t been any cases of a variant first found in South Africa detected in LA County. The dominant strain in the county has been a California variant which is believed responsible for helping to trigger the surge that began in early November.
There are 1,476 people currently in the hospital in Los Angeles County according to county health officials. That’s 26 fewer people in the hospital than on Tuesday when there were 1,502 people hospitalized.
The last time there were fewer than 1,500 people hospitalized with COVID in the county was on Nov. 23 when there were 1,473 people hospitalized.
The county’s all-time high for COVID hospitalizations occurred on Jan. 7, when there were 8,098 people hospitalized.
There 450 people currently in the ICU, according to the state. The county’s total ICU capacity is about 2,500 beds.
County health officials announced 116 more COVID-related deaths on Wednesday. The cumulative death toll in LA County is 21,669 people.
The highest number of COVID deaths in a single day occurred on Jan. 8 with 318 deaths. The second highest occurred on Jan. 30 with 316 deaths.
LA County reported 1,759 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. The county now has a cumulative total of 1,195,913 cases since the pandemic began in March.
To date, almost 5.84 million people have been tested for the coronavirus since the pandemic began. The daily positivity rate on Tuesday was 2.6%.
West Hollywood recorded 7 new cases; the cumulative total is 2,135 cases since the pandemic began. The city had no new deaths; the cumulative death total is 33 deaths.
Below are the numbers for areas near West Hollywood:
- Beverly Hills – 4 new cases for a total of 2,479 cases and 32 deaths.
- Carthay neighborhood – 1 new case for a total of 858 cases and 58 deaths.
- Century City – 1 new case for a total of 568 cases and 11 deaths.
- Culver City – 2 new cases for a total of 2,090 cases and 90 deaths.
- Hollywood – 14 new cases for a total of 5,198 cases and 64 deaths.
- Melrose neighborhood – 8 new cases total of 7,817 cases and 194 deaths.
- Miracle Mile – 2 new cases for a total of 898 cases and 15 deaths.
- Park La Brea – 2 new cases for a total of 565 cases and 1 death.
- Santa Monica – 6 new cases for a total of 4,348 cases and 150 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.
