Los Angeles County reported 35 additional COVID-19 deaths Thursday, pushing the region past 25,000 total fatalities over the course of the pandemic, officials said.
The single-day death toll is among the higher ones in recent weeks and represents the devastating domino effect of the coronavirus — with increases in new infections triggering rises in hospitalizations and, eventually, fatalities.
As a result, even though there are some signs that the latest coronavirus surge may be starting to level out in L.A. County in terms of cases, the spike’s full effects won’t become clear for a few weeks.
“The virus continues to cause debilitating and dangerous illness, and the losses we suffer now are particularly sad because almost all of them are preventable with an extremely safe and widely available vaccine,” county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said during a briefing.
Patrons of indoor events of 1,000 people or more will have to verify they either have been vaccinated or tested negative for the coronavirus in the prior 72 hours.
L.A. County has also seen a stark increase in hospitalizations in recent weeks — though, as with cases, the rate of rise appears to be slowing.
Countywide, 1,786 coronavirus-positive patients were hospitalized Wednesday, state data show. That’s a decrease of four patients from Tuesday, though still up about 30% from two weeks ago.
Over the last week, L.A. County has reported an average of 3,478 new coronavirus cases per day, according to data compiled by The Times. That’s up about 2% from a week ago.
An average of 19 Angelenos have died from COVID-19 per day over the last week, Times’ data show. That’s 10 times the daily death count that was recorded the week ending June 15, when the county — along with the rest of the state — lifted virtually all coronavirus-related restrictions on businesses and other public spaces.
Even if cases are starting to plateau a bit, Ferrer emphasized that “leveling is just not good enough. We have to get our numbers down, and that’s going to take some time.”
“Right now, even if we are seeing another leveling around our cases, we are still in a place where we have a ton of community transmission,” she said.
