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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti made a staggering comparison Thursday. The mayor said the near-record 259 daily Covid-19 deaths in LA County on Tuesday was “more than all 2019 LA City homicides combined.”
This is startling data, especially for those who, at the start of the pandemic, equated the virus with an annual flu season. In 2017, the most recent year for which data is available, pneumonia and influenza have claimed 1,957 lives in LA County. By the end of 2020, the death toll from the pandemic stood at 10,346. Not only is this number five times higher than the number of flu deaths in 2017, it would land very close to the top of the list of major deaths. That year, coronary heart disease was the biggest killer, killing 11,211.
Garcetti’s mix of city and county numbers is, admittedly, apples to oranges. But the contrast is still stark given the time periods – one year of homicides to one day of Covid death – being compared.
The daily test positivity rate in LA County rose to 20.4% on Thursday. This means that one in five people tested in the county was positive for Covid-19. The result was 19,719 new cases recorded Thursday across the county. There were 8,098 people hospitalized for Covid-19. Twenty percent of these people were in intensive care. Since January 3, the number of Covid hospital patients has increased by more than 550 people. The countywide death toll from the virus on Thursday was 218.
Daily COVID-19 Update:
January 7, 2021
New cases: 19719 (871404 to date)
New deaths: 218 (11,545 to date)
Current hospitalizations: 8,098 pic.twitter.com/F9XULB2wdL– LA Public health (@lapublichealth) January 8, 2021
California as a whole reported a near-record daily death toll – 583 – on Thursday. It was just two deaths below the all-time high of 585 that the state suffered on December 31. It came as the country as a whole recorded its worst pandemic death tally, at 3,856.
The mayor issued a warning for the coming weeks.
“I don’t think it’s a new field that will go down automatically,” Garcetti said. “In fact, I think it’s just a break before another spike brought on by the evidence we’re seeing too much movement around Christmas and New Years. So wait, because things can get worse. “
You can watch Mayor Gacetti’s Thursday speech below.
