Los Angeles County health officials are asking essential workers to wear face covers in their own homes to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in an area where the virus kills someone every seven minutes.
Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County’s director of public health, said on Monday that “because there is so much distribution, we recommend that people wear their face covers while they are in the house.”
Ferrer said that also includes anyone who leaves home every day for work or shopping for family members. She said it’s especially important for people who go to work every day and live with older residents or residents with an underlying medical condition.
She said it will “add a layer of protection as we get through this wave.”
Los Angeles County is an epicenter for the COVID-19 outbreak, accounting for about 40 percent of virus-related deaths in California and a host of new cases.
Scroll down for video
Los Angeles County health officials are asking essential workers (photo last month) to wear face covers in their own homes in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the area where the virus kills someone every seven minutes
Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County’s director of public health, said on Monday that ‘because there is so much distribution, we recommend that people wear their face covers while in the house’
On Monday, nearly 8,000 people were hospitalized in Los Angeles County, where fewer than 50 intensive care units were available in an area with a population of 10 million people, said Dr. Christina Ghaly, district director of Health Services.
There’s a ray of hope, with new hospital admissions statewide from about 3,500 a day earlier this month to about 2,500. Some forecasts have predicted hospital admissions to level off by the end of the month.
While the county saw a dip in new cases, Ferrer said this is likely due to reduced testing after the New Year holidays.
She predicted another increase in the number of people meeting unsafe during the holidays.
Ferrer said COVID-19 still kills someone in the county every seven minutes on average. The number of deaths increased from 12 deaths per day in early November to more than 200 deaths reported daily last week.
“This is not the time to meet friends at your house to watch the game. It is not the time to go for a walk without a mask. All it takes is one mistake and soon five, ten or twenty other people become infected – many of whom could be your friends, family members or colleagues, ‘Ferrer said in a statement.
“This deadly virus continues to spread at an alarming rate and the main way to stop it is to avoid interactions with others and protect ourselves at all times,” she added.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has reported 932,697 positive cases of COVID-19 in all parts of LA County and a total of 12,387 deaths.
Meanwhile, California as a whole is transforming baseball stadiums, fairgrounds, and even a Disneyland Resort parking lot into massive vaccination sites as the coronavirus blast overwhelms hospitals.
According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, the death toll at COVID-19 in California was 30,000 Monday.
It took six months for the country’s most populous state to hit 10,000 dead, but barely a month to jump from 20,000 to 30,000 dead. California ranks third nationally for COVID-19-related deaths, after Texas and New York, which is No. 1 with nearly 40,000.
Public health officials have estimated that about 12 percent of those who contract the virus require hospital care, usually several weeks after infection, because they get sicker.
Los Angeles County is an epicenter for the COVID-19 outbreak, accounting for about 40 percent of virus-related deaths in California and a host of new cases
Ferrer said COVID-19 still kills someone in the county every seven minutes on average
Gavin Newsom and public health officials are counting on widespread vaccinations to stop the tide of new infections, starting with medical staff and the most vulnerable elderly, such as those in care homes.
Newsom, a Democrat, acknowledged that the introduction of vaccines has been too slow and promised that 1 million injections will be delivered this week, more than double what has been done so far.
That effort requires what Newsom called an “all-hands-on-deck approach,” including vaccinations by pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, dentists, paramedics and emergency medical technicians, and members of the California National Guard.
Orange County, south of Los Angeles County, announced on Monday that the first mass vaccination site will be in a Disneyland Resort parking lot in Anaheim. It is one of five sites being set up to vaccinate thousands of people every day.
The sites are “absolutely critical in stopping this deadly virus,” District Supervisor Doug Chaffee said in a statement.
The state will greatly expand its efforts with new mass vaccination sites in parking lots for Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Petco Park in San Diego and the CalExpo fairgrounds in Sacramento.
This photo from video from ABC7 Los Angeles shows employees placing bodies in a refrigerated trailer on Friday at the Los Angeles County Coroner’s offices in Los Angeles
A member of the California National Guard stands next to refrigerated trailers as a hearse driver leaves the Los Angeles County Coroner ward in Los Angeles Monday.
Cars lined up early Monday at the stadium in downtown San Diego, where officials wanted to vaccinate 5,000 health workers daily.
“It’s like a Disneyland ride,” with cars passing through it, said Heather Buschman, spokeswoman for UC San Diego Health, whose medical staff took care of the recordings.
She said people seemed eager to get vaccinated, with more than 12,500 health workers in San Diego County initially making appointments.
By the end of the week, the city of Los Angeles was planning to convert its massive COVID-19 testing site at Dodger Stadium into a vaccination center for 12,000 vaccinations a day.
Lawmakers also continued to beg people to maintain social distance to slow the spread of infection.
“Dying of COVID in the hospital only means dying,” said Hilda Solis, chairman of the County Board of Supervisors.
‘Visitors are not allowed into hospitals for their own safety. Families share their last goodbyes on tablets and mobile phones. ‘
“One of the more heartbreaking conversations our health workers share is about these last words when kids apologize to their parents and grandparents for bringing COVID into their home, because they got sick,” Solis said. ‘
And these apologies are just some of the last words loved ones will ever hear. ‘