Former Councilmember John Duran has been doing daily COVID updates on his Facebook page since March 2020. Many members of the community have found them helpful. They are republished here with his permission.
LA County Cases 1,246,821 (up from 1,246,619) LA County Deaths 24,421 (up from 24,416) LA Positivity Rate .4% (unchanged at .4%) LA Hospitalizations 216 (up from 218)
210 new COVID cases announced in LA County yesterday along with 6 additional deaths. (Numbers don’t add up but that is how the county is reporting it). Positivity rate remains low at less than half of one percent. Hospitalizations stable at 218.
COVID WAS HERE EARLIER THAN WE THOUGHT
Interesting article in the LA Times this morning. An analysis of Red Cross blood donations suggests that COVID was already here in December 2019 – weeks before the cases were first recognized by health officials.
COVID emerged in Wuhan, China in late 2019. Officially, the first US Infection to be identifed was a Washington state man who returned from Wuhan on January 15, 2020. He sought help at a clinic four days later on January 19, 2020.
A CDC led study that analyzed 7,000 samples from American Red Cross donations suggest that COVID infected some Americans as early as December 2019. A second study published online yesterday was done by the NIH (National Institutes of Health). They analyzed 24,000 blood samples from across the USA collected the first three months of 2020.
Nine of the study participants ( 5 from Illinois and one each from Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennyslvania and Wisconsin) show people were infected earlier than reported in any of these states. More analysis will be done by NIH to determine if any of these people traveled outside of the country.
CALIFORNIA IS RE OPENED – BUT IT’S A SLOW START
After more than a year of masking and lockdowns, CA re opened yesterday. But in many places, yesterday looked much like the day before. I was still masking. Not out of fear, but out of habit. I walked into a courtroom with my client in Victorville. People were still masked. Still socially distant. The court still handled one case at a time.
People are still masked at the gym. I watched a couple of arguments between workers at a restaurant on Sunset Blvd where workers insisted that people wear masks while customers insisted it wasn’t required any longer. It wasn’t angry. The customers did mask up to enter (and then removed mask to drink and eat). We all seem to be operating on rote and routine. It’s going to take days and maybe weeks for the new reality to set in.
I am OK with it all. COVID hasn’t disappeared as you can see from the numbers above. Hundreds of people in LA are still being infected daily (the unvaccinated). There is a new more contagious Delta strain out there now. So, I am not going to worry if people are being TOO cautious.
I think a great deal of patience is required as we all transition from one phase of the pandemic into the next. Deep breaths everyone. Inhale and count to ten. Nothing worth exploding over. No need to be “right” about masking or non masking. Pacienca y Fe. Patience and Faith.
One day at a time – post pandemic
Heat wave continues today. Sunny and hot in the 90’s across LA. Bake (please no shake yet). One calamity at a time……
