Los Angeles reports one death from Covid every eight minutes

According to a new tweet from the county, one person dies of Covid-19 in Los Angeles every eight minutes.

More than 11,000 Los Angeles County residents have died of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. More than 5,000 of these deaths have occurred in the past two months, data from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health shows.

“People who used to live healthy and productive lives are now dying of accidentally encountered the COVID-19 virus,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of health in Los Angeles, on Wednesday, adding that the county witnesses more than 200 deaths every day.

Cases have increased by 941% since November 1 and so far, the rate of new cases in January is double what it was in December, according to Freer. In the past two months, the positivity rate in Los Angeles County jumped from 3.8% to 21.8%.

The number of hospitalizations has increased to 10 times what it was on November 1, and health services director Christina Galli warns that another increase is expected within the next two weeks. There are currently more than 8,000 people in hospital, 20% of them in intensive care units and 19% on ventilators.

Los Angeles County hospitals are still working in emergency care, but due to overwhelming demand, they can be venturing into crisis care mode. If this occurs, patients can be transferred to other areas and all hospitals will be required to stop elective surgeries.