latest detailed report by city and demographics here<\/a>.<\/p>\nAlso still on the rise were hospitalization figures, with the county reporting a total of 4,403 people admitted with COVID-19, an increase of roughly 200 from Monday. According to the county Department of Public Health, roughly 21% of those patients, or about 924 people, were in ICU beds.\u00a0County officials noted that the number of people hospitalized one month ago was 1,049.<\/p>\n
Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer estimated earlier that based on current trends, the county will have more than 5,000 people hospitalized due to coronavirus by the weekend.\u00a0Increasing hospitalizations have become a growing concern, particularly as they affect ICU beds.<\/p>\n
Despite the increase in patient numbers, the county Department of Health Services on Tuesday actually reported a slight rise in available ICU beds, putting the number at 115, up from 95 on Monday. That number can fluctuate rapidly based on patient movement and available staffing. A bed is only considered “available” if there is staffing on hand to treat a patient.<\/p>\n
Dr. Christina Ghaly, the county’s health services director, said Monday there was a daily average of 2,522 overall ICU beds in the county last week — roughly equivalent to hospitals’ licensed capacity — with roughly 35% of those beds occupied by COVID patients.<\/p>\n
In terms of non-ICU hospital beds, the county DHS reported 1,046 were available as of Tuesday, also a slight increase from Monday. The county last week had a daily average total of 10,360 overall non-ICU beds, with 27% of them occupied by COVID patients.<\/p>\n
Ghaly called the percentages of COVID patients in ICU and non-ICU beds “absolutely astonishing.” For the past two weeks, the county — with 10 million residents — has averaged fewer than 100 available ICU beds per day, and just more than 400 standard hospital beds.<\/p>\n
“We must all work together to prevent as many hospitalizations and deaths as possible while we wait for the COVID-19 vaccine to be widely available,” Ferrer said in a statement Tuesday. “The first vaccines were administered yesterday (Monday) marking the beginning of the end of this pandemic. I ask that everyone stay strong and focus all efforts to stop the surge.<\/p>\n
“We need to protect each other from this deadly virus by carefully abiding by the straight-forward safety measures and directives in the Health Officer Order,” Ferrer said. “It worked before and it will work again when we all follow the rules.”<\/p>\n
Gov. Gavin Newsom noted Tuesday that the strain on hospital staffing across California prompted the state to temporarily lower the required staffing requirements in ICU units, from the normal one staffer for every two patients, down to one staffer for every three patients. The state also amended its quarantine requirements for health care workers exposed to COVID, lowering the mandate to just seven days, assuming the worker tests negative for the virus on day five or later of the quarantine.<\/p>\n
Dwindling ICU capacity prompted the state to impose a regional stay at home order earlier this month. The order was triggered when overall ICU capacity dropped below 15%. As of Tuesday, the state’s estimated ICU capacity for the region — adjusted based on the percentage of current COVID-19 versus non-COVID-19 ICU patients — dropped to 1.7%<\/p>\n
The state’s regional stay-at-home order, which covers Los Angeles County, bars gatherings of people from different households. The state\u2019s full stay-at-home order can be read at:\u00a0https:\/\/www.gov.ca.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/12.3.20-Stay-at-Home-Order-ICU-Scenario.pdf\u00a0<\/a>.\u00a0The order will remain in effect until at least Dec. 28.<\/p>\n–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County Tuesday reported its highest single-day number of COVID-19-related deaths since the summer, while hospitalization figures continued a steady upward climb that threatens the availability of intensive-care unit beds. The county announced 86 new deaths, one of the highest daily totals reported during the entire pandemic and the highest seen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1497,15,1502,10,1496,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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