Covid testing center at Cabrillo High School in the city of Long Beach.
Photo: Jorge Macías / Impremedia
California registers more than one new contagion every second and the epicenter is Los Angeles County where the number of hospitalized threatens to quickly reach the top in hospitals.
Los Angeles reports 30 new infections per minute, this is more than four times the average of the last count presented by La Opinion.
More than 2 million residents of the Los Angeles area have been infected since the beginning of the pandemic, but the impact of omicron, especially among the non-infected, accelerates positive cases and deaths, although the latter to a lesser extent.
The county Department of Public Health reported 43,586 new cases in 24 hours on Monday. More than a dozen people lost their lives to covid in Los Angeles on the same date.
John Hopkins University identifies Los Angeles County as the worst hit throughout the pandemic on Tuesday, with 2 million 10 thousand 964 infections.
Angelenos also have the highest rate of covid deaths during the pandemic, with 27,798 deaths.
In terms of covid, Los Angeles is the epicenter of the state that has also suffered the worst of the pandemic, according to the same John Hopkins University.
In California, more than 6 million 168 thousand infections have been registered so far in the pandemic and until Tuesday, and 77 thousand 452 deaths from Covid.
The state has 11,815 hospitalizations for the pandemic as of Tuesday and only had 1,601 beds available in the entire state.
According to the state Department of Health, there are 59,600 new cases a day on average. 48 people per day perish from covid also as a state average.
Latinos throughout the state have remained the most impacted ethnic group since the start of the pandemic; and with omicron, you continue in that position.
Latinos are in California 49.6 percent of those infected, and 45.3 percent of those killed by covid.
They are followed by whites with less than half the infections, 24.4 percent, and 33 percent of all deaths from the pandemic.
The Los Angeles County Health Department reports that Latinos represent a death rate from covid of 403 per 100,000 inhabitants, while Los Angeles whites who have perished from the pandemic have a rate of less than half than Latinos, 147 per 100,000 inhabitants.
While it is still early to identify whether the omicron variant also disproportionately hits Latinos, it is clear that it is more severe with unvaccinated non-Americans.
Currently, on average, almost 1 in 5 tests for the coronavirus in California are positive.
“The state has reported approximately 100,000 cases each day for the past few days as the omicron surge explodes, California Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Mark Ghaly said at a conference.
He added that the pandemic “once again with omicron is taking over our state, challenging our health systems and impacting communities that have already been hit hard.”
What most worries the Health authorities throughout the state is that the emergency beds that were occupied in just over 3,000 a month ago, are now occupied in more than 11,000, there are few left and infections are increasing.
Governor Gavin Newsom estimated that the occupancy of beds could reach 23,000 by February 2, due to the speed of omicron infections.
With the shortage of beds is presented parallel that of the staff. The California Department of Health determined that to address the shortage of nurses, those who are infected but lack symptoms, that is, who can work, will have to remain in their positions, a provision until at least February 1.
The whole situation “that gives you an idea of where we are, that it’s manageable, but it’s challenging,” Governor Newsom said.
He explained that “front-line nurses and doctors have just been overwhelmed” by the shock that the omicron variant brought.
The governor had already ordered that the National Guard will support the 50 busiest covid testing centers with 200 troops and anticipated that this week it will deploy more military personnel as interim Health personnel.
Source-laopinion.com