LOS ANGELES – With the numbers of people hospitalized due to coronavirus rising and the rate of positive tests increasing, Los Angeles County’s public health director warned Thursday if people and businesses don’t adhere to safety mandates, it could stall or even reverse efforts to reopen the economy.
“When we look at the actions of businesses and individuals with our recovery indicators, it shows how well we’re doing on slowing the spread of COVID-19 and maintaining our capacity for caring for people who become ill, and based on this information, we are concerned,” Barbara Ferrer told reporters.
“We’re concerned not only for the people who are out and who are not wearing their face coverings or keeping their distance from others, but we’re also concerned for the people that may unknowingly infect their parents, their grandparents, their friends and their family who have underlying health conditions and who are at greater risk for serious illness and death.”
She said if businesses don’t adhere to protocols for reopening and residents fail to take precautionary measures, “our recovery journey will look very different than what we hoped.”
“All of us want to continue to reopen, and it’s important to note that the health of our community … depends on the actions each of us are taking,” she said. “We do have control of what happens here. So please do what’s right to help each other.”
Ferrer said that over the course of three recent weekends after restaurants — and now bars — were permitted to reopen for dine-in service, county inspectors visited more than 3,700 establishments, and 83% of them were found not to be in full compliance with county protocols for reopening. The extent of non-compliance likely varied widely, but exact details weren’t available.
Ferrer said that over the past two months, the largest percentage of complaints the Department of Public Health received about restaurants and other businesses were violations of the requirement that safety protocols be publicly posted at each establishment and distributed to employees. The second most common complaint was people not wearing face coverings.
“And though this represents a smaller portion (of the complaints) this month than May, it’s still a significant concern,” Ferrer said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom Thursday warned again that hospitalizations were continuing to climb statewide, up roughly 30% over the past two weeks. Los Angeles County’s hospitalization numbers were also climbing, Ferrer said. As of Thursday, more than 1,600 people were hospitalized, up from 1,556 on Wednesday.
“This is extraordinarily worrisome, as it does reflect the result of more community transmission of COVID-19,” Ferrer said. “People are out more. There’s more people becoming infected and unfortunately increased cases will always lead us to more hospitalizations.”
Ferrer said the rate of people testing positive for the illness has also been increasing, with the seven-day daily average now at about 8.4% — a point it hadn’t reached since April. The county’s overall positivity rate is still around 8%.
On Thursday, Los Angeles County reported another 2,012 new cases and 42 more deaths due to coronavirus.
To date (June 25), Public Health has identified 91,467 positive cases of COVID-19 and 3,246 coronavirus deaths across all areas of LA County, including 1,150 coronavirus cases and 20 deaths in Palmdale; 961cases and 15 deaths in Lancaster; 55 cases and nine deaths in Quartz Hill; 48 cases and two deaths in Lake Los Angeles; 56 cases and no deaths in the Littlerock/Pearblossom, Juniper Hills areas; and 40 cases and no deaths in Sun Village. View the latest detailed report here.
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surfside 6 says
Eradicating a danger you can’t see or hear is one of the toughest things ever done. That is why most people don’t even try. Not knowing where to pinpoint precious corrective resources can send all effort into infinity. Like getting lost. The initial corrective adjustment is extremely critical. Because if your follow up adjustment is also wrong you are REALLY lost!
Pam says
Two principle reasons this coronavirus thing spiraled out-of-control. From the outset, (1) the mainstream media’s fed us misinformation on the virus. Had they leveled with us, regarding what this thing really is, everyone would have taken quarantine far more seriously. Had (2) government done its job, had the government in Washington DC not been so fixated on impeachment, had they nipped it in the bud, clamping down on ANTIFA rioters, never would this thing have gotten this far out of hand –
Violet says
President’s been very good about keeping the Muslims and Mexicans out. Irony so thick it cuts like a hot knife through butter, an Ebola/HIV germ warfare agent bio-engineered by whacked out Chinese virologists, waltzed across our border wholly unmolested. Government failure on an unprecedented scale, sitting on their hands, America’s billion dollar bio-defense laboratory at Fort Detrick got caught with their pants down –
Dave says
You’d have to keep your thumbs out of your arse, Ron, long enough to pick it. I don’t know how you type with them up there.
Dave says
Pam is clueless. She just doesn’t remember Trump saying the following things.
-it was hoax
-there were only 15 cases a while back and it will disappear like a “miracle”. Hopefully, so will he.
-now he’s saying it’s over and we’re on to a great recovery in the economy, blah, blah, blah.
-inject bleach or Lysol
-testing reveals more positive cases so he wanted to cut back on testing.
-and much, much more silly yet dangerous stuff. Texas, Florida and Arizona are now suffering because
their politicans followed Trump’s lead. The Main Stream Media predicted that.
When Sean Hannity asked the fool Trump what his priorites are for a second term, here they are>
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The fool just blabbered and didn’t answer the question. He’s Pam’s guy I guess.
If the complicit Republicans in the Senate had voted to convict Trump, we would have been better off now regarding a response to the pandemic. Trump spent weeks yapping at those daily press conferences and the experts had to fix everthing he said. Trump was making things worse yet Pam didn’t notice.
Pam is clueless.
Your turn, Pam. Please tell us how you missed all that. Were you in a coma? How can you ever show your name here again after that pathetic clueless comment of yours. If you are insulted, good. Very good.
Trumpist#1 says
“Bless me Dave, for I have sinned”……….Burt Reynolds character in “The End”.
Dom says
Those weren’t the words he said.
Virus says
Do not leave your house.